The government of Portugal has kicked off a tender to build four floating solar plants at the Alqueva Dam on the River Guadiana, on the border of Beja and Évora Districts in southern Portugal.

State-owned Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infraestruturas do Alqueva (EDIA), controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture of Portugal, will hold the procurement exercise.

The four facilities will have a combined capacity of 52 MW and will use around 100,000 solar panels.

In May, EDIA launched a tender for the construction of 4.5 MW of floating solar on the reservoirs of Ferreira do Alentejo, Almeidas, Pias, Penedrão, and Monte Novo.

Portuguese researchers from the University of Évora recently discovered that the installed capacity of floating solar systems could exceed the 7 GW target defined in the country’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2030.

The researchers identified the region of Alentejo in southern Portugal as the area with the greatest potential, as it has numerous water surfaces and a great solar resource.