Bota calls for Algarve “energy alliance”

The objective is to make the Algarve cleaner in environmental terms, and self-sufficient.

“The Algarve has all the potential and conditions to be a region running on pure energy – free from the crime of increased carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and close to self-sufficiency, if all our forces where concentrated in a new economic cluster of renewable energies”, Bota claims.

The idea came during the international conference of «Energias Renováveis e Turismo Sustentável» (Renewable energies and sustainable tourism), which took place in Albufeira last Saturday 6th March.

At the event, José Martins de Oliveira, director of AREAL (the Algarve’s regional energy agency) said the Algarve could become a pilot region for the use of the first electric cars – as long as local authorities and hoteliers quickly created a network of charging stations in all the boroughs.

Oliveira reminded his audience that the cost of fuel in the Algarve outstrips the European average because there are no viable public transport alternatives available.