The Regional Secretary for Energy, Environment and Tourism stated today that, by 2021, 60% of electricity production in the Azores should be from renewable sources and endogenous resources. In this regard, she highlighted geothermal production, which accounts for 34%, as a Government priority in the sustainability and enhancement of the natural resources available.
 
"Right now, geothermal production on São Miguel is at 182GWh, representing 43% of electricity production on the island and 23% of energy production in the Azores. The overall renewable energy sources on this island is at 54% and represents 35% of the total in the Azores, which has reduced about 165 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the last year," said Marta Guerreiro. The government official spoke in Furnas at the opening of the first meeting of the European project designated as ERA-NET Geothermica; the Regional Government of the Azores is a partner of the initiative through the Regional for Science and Technology.
 
According to the Secretary for Energy, it is important to strengthen the representation of the Region in European organisations for the definition of strategic policies in the energy sector, thus making the Azores a "living lab" to test emerging solutions that will turn us into "smart islands."
 
Participate actively and effectively in the development of European programmes and projects is one of the Government's priorities, through research and technological development in the field of energy, especially in areas that include natural and endogenous resources, such as geothermal energy.
 
"We intend to promote research to enhance our local potential applied to the various strategic sectors, promoting innovation and competitiveness in our region," said Marta Guerreiro. She added that geothermal energy "should be not only used for electricity production, the so-called high enthalpy, but also for heat production (low enthalpy), such as the case of water heating (tourism sector), greenhouse heating (agricultural sector) and geothermal heating (as in the typical Azorean meat stew cooked in hot springs)."
 
In the Azores, there are two geothermal plants with capacity of 23 MW, both on the island of São Miguel. The Regional Secretary added that the Terceira Geothermal Power Plant will be completed this year, with an estimated capacity of 3.5 MW.
 
The Government of the Azores, being in line with the commitment of the European Union for 2020 and 2030 as well as with the Paris Agreement 2016, has set strategic goals to increase energy efficiency and reduce both the consequences of the greenhouse effect and the dependence on fossils fuels by 2020 in order to promote the quality and safety of energy supply to the population.