The Portuguese Government has finally established the area for the Viana do Castelo technological free zone ("ZLT") to produce renewable energies off the in north cost of Portugal. The ruling was published on October 4 in the Official Gazette.

This new ZLT covers an area of 7.63 km² and is located in the National Maritime Spatial Planning (PSOEM) for Viana do Castelo. It corresponds to a total area of 47 km², bordering the Windfloat Atlantic offshore wind farm (with its 25 MW and covering an area of 11.25km²).

Installing research and development projects with more than 30 kW capacity in this ZLT will require a prior register at DGEG, the Portuguese Energy ministerial department.

The injection capacity into the public grid can be used for a period of six years from the availability of the connection infrastructure. This period may be extended by DGEG for half of the initial term.

The energy injected from these projects into the public grid will be freely tradable in the open market or through bilateral contracts.

Projects developed within the ZLT will be exempt from paying grid access tariffs and other charges related to grid contributions, but they may be subject to a fee established by the Portuguese Energy Regulatory Authority (ERSE) to partially cover the grid operators’ investment and operation of the connection infrastructure necessary for the operation of the ZLT.

The Portuguese Electric System Law had established in 2022 three ZLT aimed at promoting research and testing activities for technologies, products, services, business models, and specific regulatory frameworks regarding to electricity production, storage, and self-consumption. One of those areas is precisely located in Viana do Castelo and was assigned to renewable energy projects from oceanic source or location (the other two were dedicated, respectively, to the decommissioning process of the Pego coal-fired thermoelectric plant and the Rego do Mira irrigation perimeter).