Construction of the Sines desalination plant, in the district of Setúbal, will begin in 2027, with completion scheduled for 2031, with an investment of 120 million euros, revealed this Friday, 31st, the Minister of the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho.
“The deadlines given to us by [empresa] Águas de Portugal, through Águas de Santo André [AdSA]”, point to the start of construction of the future desalination plant “in 2027, to be ready” between “2030 [e] 2031”, the government official responsible for the Environment and Energy portfolios told the Lusa agency.
After announcing that the Government will move forward with the construction of a desalination plant in Sines, on Tuesday, in parliament, the Minister of the Environment, contacted by Lusa, said today that the planned investment for the project is “120 million euros”.
“Its size will have to be studied, but taking into account the investments we have in the Algarve desalination plant and other similar desalination plants, it will be more than 100 million euros”, he assured.
According to the government official, the future desalination plant “will be financed with an industrial tariff, in the long term”, which will later be calculated by the company AdSA, from the Águas de Portugal group, responsible for managing the Santo André System.
AdSA ensures the water supply to the populations of the municipalities of Sines and Santiago do Cacém, the collection and treatment of wastewater and responds to the demands of industries located in the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS), in the supply of drinking water, industrial water, waste water and industrial waste.
The minister justified the investment in Sines with “the large number of industrial projects, hydrogen and green steel production”, among others, in a region “with some water stress”.
These projects “require an infrastructure to connect to the electricity grid”, he explained, adding that, in addition to having created “an area of great demand to resolve the issue of access to the electricity grid”, the Government is “making legislation” to ensure its reinforcement.
“We are enacting legislation to create a second high demand area in Sines, in addition to other high demand areas in the rest of the country” that will “resolve the issue of access to the electricity grid”, he stated.
But, he indicated, all these investments “need a large amount of” fresh water, recycled water, salt water for cooling and desalinated water.
“Taking into account the investments that are Projects of National Interest [PIN] and that already have authorization from the APA [Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente]which in total require 10 cubic hectometers [de água]the solution proposed to us by the technicians” points “towards a new water management model” for the Sines area, he highlighted.
This new model assigns the management of fresh water, salt water for cooling and desalinated water to AdSA, which will also be responsible for the construction of “the desalination plant”, which will be “model”, that is, it will start with a “smaller” size so that it “can grow” as there is “more need for investment”.
Furthermore, negotiations are taking place between Aicep Global Parques, which manages ZILS, APA and EDP to use part of the infrastructure used by the old coal plant to capture seawater for the new system, said Maria da Graça Carvalho.
Asked about the desalination technology used, the minister clarified that it will be “chosen by AdSA and Águas de Portugal technicians” and recalled that the project also follows “a very rigorous environmental licensing process that takes time”.
The future plant “can somewhat alleviate water pressure” on the Alentejo coast, as well as the investments “in the remodeling and repair of the Santa Clara dam”, in Odemira, district of Beja, and the “possible connection to the Alqueva dam”.
“There is a set of elements that have to be studied and compared in terms of efficiency and cost”, he stated, arguing that the Government also knows that it “has to resolve and look at the issue of Odemira”, an area for which “the most efficient model to apply has not yet been chosen”.
The post 120 Million Desalination Plant Starts in 2027 appeared first on Veritas News.
