"The installation of the Cabril floating photovoltaic plant project will have a very serious negative impact on the municipality of Pedrógão Grade and on the territories (neighboring municipalities)", reads a document prepared by the municipal services and analyzed today in the public meeting of the Chamber, in the parish of Graça, and which was attended by some locals. The project covers Pedrógão Grande (Leiria district), Sertã (Castelo Branco) and Pampilhosa da Serra (Coimbra), municipalities that share the Cabril reservoir. According to the document, inherent to the floating photovoltaic plant, an overhead power line of about 36 kilometers will be executed, covering several municipalities. "The villages that characterize the built heritage of Pedrógão Grande and that are close to this water line may see their depopulation increase", he said, admitting that "they seem to be at risk, because with the proposal to install floating photovoltaic panels (as well as with the energy transmission line that will leave there) it is certain that the visual landscape will change drastically". The document, which analyzed several aspects, including land use planning, civil protection, water resources and financial profitability, also points to the violation of the Municipal Master Plan and the Reservoir Management Plan. Recognizing that we are in a "crucial phase in which the priority is to decarbonize", the municipality considered, however, that "it should not be carried out at any cost, nor jeopardize strategic resources for the development of the municipality". "Decarbonizing is an important process, however it cannot occur by carbonizing the economy of one of the weakest and rural regions of the country", he pointed out, arguing that the floating solar plant "does not represent added value for the municipality". On the other hand, it classified the financial compensation as a "drop of water in the dam" in the face of "the damage and the negative impacts that will result from it, which are much greater than the positive ones, calling into question social values associated with the use of the river and the connection of the population to it, water quality, landscape, tourism, attractiveness and endogeneity of the place". To the Lusa agency, the mayor of the municipality, António Lopes, highlighted the work developed by the municipality, such as the nautical station, and recalled that there are activities linked to tourism in that area, in addition to others that "have been historically developed", such as recreational or professional fishing. According to António Lopes, the "passage of the line itself will affect the quality of life of those people and the environment", and will also enter into "a collision course" with the water supply for firefighting aircraft. "It has many more negative aspects than positive ones", said the mayor, noting that in the meeting of the municipal executive "a small part of a popular demonstration" had already been revealed. In April 2022, the Chamber and the Pedrógão Grande Nautical Club expressed concern about the impact of the installation of a floating solar plant near the Cabril Dam. At the time, António Lopes questioned how it would be possible, with the completion of the investment, "to accommodate the use of the reservoir to fight fires and for tourist and nautical activities", in addition to having warned of the visual impact. That month, the company Voltalia, which won the floating solar energy project at the Cabril Dam, announced that "the installed capacity will be between 33 MW [megawatts] and 40 MW, depending on the final optimization of the project". "With 33 hectares, the plant will supply green energy for a volume equivalent to the consumption of 70,300 inhabitants", explained the company, explaining that "it will guarantee the development, construction and operation of the plant". The company's manager in Portugal, João Amaral, told Lusa at the time that, "from a project point of view, Voltalia will work to have the least possible environmental impact". "The Cabril project emerged from a public auction, so we naturally know that the Government also took into account all the concerns before launching this opportunity on the market, since a procedure of this kind is only possible in strict alignment between the Government, the Municipality and the local bodies", added João Amaral. Read Also: Suspect of homicide in Pedrógão Grande accused of three crimes (Portuguese version)