The scale of the territory and the weight of agriculture
According to the 2019 Agricultural Census published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in 2021, the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) in Mainland Portugal stood at 3.9 million hectares. Alentejo clearly stood out on this national map, concentrating more than half of all this productive agricultural area. This vast territorial base has historically been the engine of the national primary sector, integrating both intensive irrigated farming and extensive dryland and montado areas.
In direct contrast to this agricultural vastness, the national energy sector recorded unprecedented acceleration in the last decade. According to data from the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) released in 2025, solar photovoltaic capacity installed in Mainland Portugal, which was just over 1 gigawatt in 2020, skyrocketed to 5.6 gigawatts in 2023, marking a year-on-year growth of 44.7%. This pace continued to accelerate until surpassing the 6.5 gigawatts threshold in the first quarter of 2026.
This energy transition route found in the Alentejo territory the insolation conditions and large flat terrain considered ideal for the installation of industrial-scale photovoltaic parks. Pressure on rural soil intensified through megaprojects with dozens of megawatts, transforming licensing deadlines and pitting clean energy production against the preservation of traditional agricultural practices in the region.
The acceleration map and municipal distribution
To organize this expansion, the Council of Ministers and the 2030 Renewables Licensing Mission Structure approved in 2026 the Sectoral Program for Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas (PSZAER). This instrument delimited an exact total of 19,396.65 hectares with specific suitability for solar photovoltaic energy, distributed across 26 different municipalities throughout the Alentejo territory, as detailed in official sector publications in 2026.
Within the Central Alentejo sub-region, 12 municipalities concentrate the dominant share of these soils mapped for solar acceleration. Data from the Ministry of Environment and Energy for 2026 place the municipality of Alandroal in absolute leadership with 3,712.28 hectares indicated, which represents 6.84% of the total area of that municipality. Right behind is Reguengos de Monsaraz, with 2,603.63 hectares identified, equivalent to 5.61% of its respective municipal territory.
In Baixo Alentejo, the concentration takes on equally pronounced contours in other geographical points. According to records from the Coordination and Regional Development Commission (CCDR) published in 2026, the municipality of Almodôvar alone brings together 1,634.75 hectares suitable for photovoltaics, a value that represents more than half of the 2,742.45 hectares identified for the set of that entire sub-region in the ZAER territorial model.
The scale of megaprojects and impacts on the ground
The physical realization of these infrastructure projects stands out in coastal and interior municipalities through massive investments. The Fernando Pessoa Solar Photovoltaic Plant, promoted by Iberdrola and Prosolia Energy in Santiago do Cacém, obtained environmental license from the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in 2023 for a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, occupying 1,262 hectares of predominantly forest and agro-forestry land.
In other points, such as the complex located between Alcácer do Sal and Grândola evaluated by APA through the SILiAmb system in 2025, the Sado project foresees 600 megawatts of capacity distributed over a total intervention area of 1,272 hectares, of which 356 hectares are directly occupied by the physical projection of photovoltaic modules on the ground.
In Moura, a pioneering municipality where the Amareleja Solar Plant inaugurated in late 2008 already occupied 250 hectares with 2,520 solar trackers according to municipal and DGEG records from 2024, new projects thicken the territorial footprint. The Alqueva Solar Plant with 570 hectares, the Cristóvão Colombo I project with 895 hectares, and the floating plant total about 1,700 hectares planned, equivalent to almost 2% of the total area of that Alentejo municipality.
The myth of total destruction versus statistical reality
The dominant public perception points to the idea that solar plants are decimating and swallowing the general fertile and agricultural lands of Alentejo, generating constant warnings from civic and environmental associations. An Amnesty International investigative report published in 2023 warned that multiple megaprojects are advancing over National Agricultural Reserve (RAN) areas and involve the planned felling of hundreds of thousands of trees, including 1.5 million in Santiago do Cacém.
In a similar sense, the environmental association ZERO denounced in 2023 the direct affectation of soils from the National Agricultural Reserve and the National Ecological Reserve (REN), in addition to the potential destruction of holm oak and cork oak stands in plants installed in municipalities such as Portel, Santiago do Cacém, Vidigueira, and Ferreira do Alentejo. The legal flexibility introduced by Decree-Law no. 72/2022, which exempted plants with less than 1 megawatt from prior municipal control and limited the power of local authorities, fueled the debate on the loss of local sovereignty.
However, when crossing global statistical data, the dimensional reality moves away from the narrative of total occupation. As jointly underlined by INE and DGEG in the 2026 analyses, even if all of the approximately 20 thousand hectares proposed in the ZAER acceleration map are effectively occupied by solar panels, this value will represent less than 1% of the more than 2 million hectares of Utilized Agricultural Area existing throughout the Alentejo region.
Regulatory relief and what is decided next
The discrepancy between local visual impact and regional statistical expression is explained by the way territorial planning has been conducted. The Ministry of Environment's Mission Structure for Renewable Energies clarified in 2026 that cartographic inclusion on the PSZAER map does not equate to automatic project approval, maintaining the obligation to comply with environmental impact assessments and compatibility with Municipal Master Plans.
On the legislative front, the joint dispatch of APA and DGEG issued on March 15, 2022, determined the exemption from prior Environmental Impact Assessment review for aggregated solar plants up to 12 megawatts outside sensitive areas, streamlining processes but transferring scrutiny to industrial licensing phases and the issuance of operating licenses by competent authorities.
For those living in Alentejo's 47 municipalities, the issue is no longer the lack of global agricultural space and has shifted to the local concentration of projects. Landscape transformation and pressure on water resources and fertile soil continue to manifest acutely in specific municipalities of Central Alentejo and the coast, where the proportion of municipal occupation largely exceeds the sub-1% average recorded across the entire region.