Portugal

Overall assessment

The Portuguese National Recovery and Resilience Plan consists of 83 investments and 32 reforms. They will be supported by €13.9 billion in grants and €2.7 billion in loans. 38% of the plan will support climate objectives and 22% of the plan will foster the digital transition. The Fund dedicates financing to energy communities, under component C-3 for energy efficiency in buildings. Beneficiaries include households, businesses in the services sector and local, regional and central government buildings.

Detailed assessment

General: allocation, definition, transposition

Specific allocation for energy communities

Within the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Fund there is a dedicated budget for energy communities, as well as dedicated targets in terms of installed capacity by 2025.

Definition of energy communities in line with EU legislation

Within the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Fund the definition of energy communities is based on the law Decreto-Lei n.º 162/2019, which is not fully aligned with the EU Directives.

Proportionality of share of total fund allocated to energy communities

The total funds allocated to energy communities within the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Fund is not fully proportional to the total funds dedicated to green energy.

Availability of tailored financing tools

This information is not available yet.

Link to a wider scope of activities and objectives

Link between energy communities, building renovation and energy efficiency

In the Portuguese NRRP energy communities are mentioned as milestone indicators under the following investments:

Investment TC-C13-i01, Investment TC-C13-i02, Investment TC-C13-i03, which relate to promoting energy renovations, energy and resource efficiency and to enhancing self-consumption of renewable energy. for private buildings, central government buildings, and in buildings used by the services sector, in turn.

Thus, there are clear links between energy efficiency, building renovations and energy communities.

Recognition of energy communities under multiple objectives

Energy communities within the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Fund are recognised under multiple objectives.

Transparency and inclusiveness

Holistic strategy to provide financing across different levels of project development

This information is not available yet.

Transparency of the design and communication of the schemes and measures

This information is not available yet.

Selection criteria and the prioritisation of various social components

This information is not available yet.

Decentralised tender process

The funding programs for energy communities under the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Fund are centralised.

Existence of procedures to facilitate the participation of energy communities in open calls

This information is not available yet.

Stability and predictability of the programme through time

Too early to assess, but the financing of energy communities is connected to the targets of the National Reform Programme of 2022 which sets a targets of 35MW of additional capacity via self-consumption (private prosumers) and energy communities by 2025. Due to the consistency and link between different Government programmes, some level of stability and predictability is expected.

REPowerEU

Inclusion of energy communities in national REPowerEU chapter

Various supporting measures are foreseen within the Portuguese REPowerEU chapter. More information can be found in the REPowerEU tracker tab.