APREN e APESF fundem-se para promover as energias renováveis
APESF (Associação Portuguesa de Empresas do Sector Fotovoltaico) merged with APREN (Associação Portuguesa de Energias Renováveis).
Read below the full statement on the topic, and please do send an email for any inquiries: apren@apren.pt
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The Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN) and the Portuguese Association for the the Photovoltaic Industry (APESF), two Portuguese business associations for the defense and promotion of renewable energies, join their efforts to represent the photovoltaic sector, embracing our paradigm of an increasingly integrated energy system that requires coordinated planning and operation of the system as a whole, involving all different energy vectors, infrastructures and final consumers.
APREN was created in 1988 with a mission to defend independent renewable energy producers. It has evolved over the years, given the need to respond to the growing development of the sector in parallel with the worsening of climate change and the respective development of sustainability policies. Thus, although APREN initially represented small hydropower plants, which emerged with the introduction of the independent electricity production activity established in Decree-Law No. 189/88, of May 27, it quickly grew, incorporating a vast portfolio of large-scale power plants and now representing not only companies that own power stations, but all companies that contribute to the promotion of the sector.
APESF was founded in 2008 with the mission of exclusively promoting the development and dynamization of the photovoltaic energy market in Portugal, which began its growth with the introduction of micro-production of electricity established by Decree-Law No. 363/2007, of November 2, dedicated mainly to self-consumption, which established a new operating paradigm for the electrical system with local generation through units connected to consumption points. It was also expanding with regulatory evolution and growing with the decentralized production market. The two associations followed their path always working in parallel, but with close and permanent cooperation and dialogue from their respective foundations.
With the growing need to mitigate climate effects and adapt the energy system accordingly, which has evolved, however, to a connected, flexible and more circular model, the need for a more holistic and integrated vision has grown, in which all vectors are interdependent.
Precisely in 2018, the European Commission presented its review of the energy policy framework with the Clean Energy package for all Europeans with three main objectives: prioritizing energy efficiency, achieving world leadership in energy from renewable sources and establishing a level playing field for consumers, as a market reconfiguration that allows the active participation of renewable generation in a transparent and unhindered manner in its various dimensions and characteristics.
In this new context, APREN and APESF recognize the need to unify efforts and competences and follow the dynamic and new vision of the energy model, which culminated in their merger under the seal “APREN – Portuguese Renewable Energy Association”. 13/09/2021