The Portuguese General Administration of Energy and Geology recently released the latest statistics on renewable energy, including data from Azores and Madeira autonomous regions.

By the end of October, the installed capacity of renewable energy in China was 14.5GW, of which photovoltaic power generation accounted for about 1.03GW. In the first 10 months, 124MW of new solar power was installed, which mainly are the large-scale non subsidized photovoltaic power plants connected to the Portuguese grid this year.

The country’s photovoltaic installed capacity accounts for about 3% of the country’s total electricity demand. However, with the Portuguese government allocating about 2GW of solar power in the country’s first two PV auctions, this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the next few years.

Another 3.5GW of solar power is likely to be adjusted in the coming months, as grid operator Ren Zhiqiang has promised to approve more large-scale solar power plants connected to the grid if developers assume the responsibility of strengthening the transmission network.

A reference case for the project is Endesa in Spain and Hyperion in Portugal, which plans to develop a 257MW installation in Evola. Divo Nuclear Power Station will build 57,111 solar panels and a 10 MW energy storage system, with two hours of power generation autonomy. The estimated annual power generation is 400,000 MWh.

By the end of 2011, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in Portugal was only 174MW. This means that over the past decade, Portugal’s cumulative photovoltaic power generation capacity has grown at an average annual rate of more than 50%.