Who gets a say in Portugal’s clean-energy map?

Portugal’s low-carbon infrastructure faces a basic planning question: what should go where, and under what conditions? The government reduced the proposed renewable energy Green Map from 7% to about 4% of national territory after 94% of nearly 8,500 consultation submissions opposed it. Protected areas were excluded, and designated locations fell from more than 1,300 to about 800. That revision does not settle the wider argument. In Alenquer, residents fear odours, lorry traffic and damage to water lines from a proposed €20.5 million biomethane plant. Construction has not been approved, and consultation remains open until 15 September. ZERO, meanwhile, says rules for data centre expansion lack binding safeguards for energy, water and heat reuse. Its figures show the scale of the concern, although they describe projected demand rather than an outcome. Wildlife work shows why careful siting and evidence matter. Teams now track 56 black vultures, and the data informs technical opinions on renewable projects near their habitats. In Campelo, trout are being raised with shelters, live prey and little human contact after genetic monitoring found earlier released farmed fish almost never survived to adulthood or reproduced. Quinas, a rehabilitated leatherback turtle, travelled 1,283 kilometres in 20 days after release, confirming normal migratory behaviour. Elsewhere, circular solutions stayed practical. Porto repairs avoided 660.726 kg of e-waste in six months, while University of Aveiro research turned spent brewer’s grain into reusable materials for filtering antibiotics from wastewater.