Renewable energy groups merge to develop photovoltaic sector in Portugal
"APREN and APESF, two Portuguese business associations for the defence and promotion of renewable energies, are joining forces to represent the photovoltaic sector," the associations said in a note.
The Portuguese associations of Renewable Energies (APREN) and of Solar Photovoltaic Sector Companies (APESF) announced their merger on Tuesday, to “develop the solar photovoltaic sector in Portugal” in the framework of the climate transition towards decarbonisation.
“APREN and APESF, two Portuguese business associations for the defence and promotion of renewable energies, are joining forces to represent the photovoltaic sector, embracing our paradigm of an increasingly integrated energy system that requires coordinated planning and operation of the system as a whole, involving all the different energy vectors, infrastructures and end consumers,” the associations said in a statement.
“With the growing need to mitigate climate effects and adapt the energy system, which has evolved into a connected, flexible and more circular model, the need for a more holistic and integrated vision, in which all vectors are interdependent, has grown”.
The two associations will be merged under the APREN – Associação Portuguesa de Energias Renováveis (Portuguese Renewable Energies Association) seal.
APREN was created in 1988 with the “mission of defending independent producers of renewable energies”, having, in the meantime, evolved “due to the need to respond to the growing development of the sector, in parallel with the worsening of climate change and respective development of sustainability policies”.
Thus, although initially representing small hydroelectric power plants, which emerged with the introduction of the activity of independent production of electricity, APREN has been broadening its scope and incorporating a vast portfolio of large-scale power plants.
It then came to represent not only the companies that own power stations but all the companies that contribute to the promotion of the sector.
APESF was founded in 2008 with the mission of “exclusively promoting the development and dynamisation of the photovoltaic energy market in Portugal”, which began its growth with the introduction of micro-production of electricity.
Progressively, it also expanded its scope with regulatory developments and grew with the decentralised production market.
Since their respective foundations, the two associations say they have been working “in parallel, but with close and permanent cooperation and dialogue.”
