Lightsource bp drops €242 million Beira solar project

Lightsource bp has cancelled its Beira solar project in central Portugal after concluding it no longer met the financial conditions needed to proceed, a setback for a planned €242 million investment in the country’s renewable energy pipeline.

The company said the environmental assessment process had identified several changes that would need to be reflected in a revised version of the project. After assessing the impact of those changes on the project’s design, it decided that “the necessary conditions of financial viability were not in place to continue developing the reformulated solution”. It added that no revised version of the Beira project will be submitted under the current environmental impact assessment procedure.

The project was planned for the municipalities of Castelo Branco and Idanha-a-Nova. Lightsource bp said the decision to cancel it was taken recently and that, up to that point, spending had mainly covered development work, technical and environmental studies, engineering and licensing. The company did not disclose the amount already invested.

Following the cancellation, Lightsource bp now has five projects under development in Portugal. The least advanced is the Sophia solar project, which has just had a revised version submitted so it can return to public consultation and seek an environmental impact declaration. The company said its other Portuguese projects have already received environmental approval and are now moving through the next stage, including financing and securing power purchase agreements.

Originally published at Eco.pt