Sophia solar park shrinks by a third, but ZERO and other groups still oppose it

What changed in the reformulated plan

Lightsource BP has reworked the Sophia solar plant, planned for Penamacor and Idanha-a-Nova in Castelo Branco district with a link to the Fundão substation. The original version was rejected by the Evaluation Commission of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in December 2025, after strong opposition from local councils, residents and environmental groups. Installed capacity now falls 34%, from 867 MWp to 573 MWp, while the fenced area drops 32%, from 1,737 to 1,177 hectares. Panels will cover about 250 hectares instead of 390, and a single 400 kV line of about 22 kilometres replaces the two overhead lines originally planned.

Panels no longer sit on high-capacity farmland, and the planned Gardunha Sul irrigation area of 222.1 hectares is also clear of them. Panels also leave the National Agricultural Reserve and the National Ecological Reserve, and about 70% of the occupied land is set to become eucalyptus plantation. According to ZERO, the most fertile soils occupied fall from 89.8 hectares to 6.07 hectares, and the Ecological Reserve footprint shrinks from 34 to 5 hectares. The nearest house moves from about 50 metres to about 270 metres away, while the distance to a black vulture roost rises from about 300 metres to 4.4 kilometres.

Opposition that has not faded

ZERO recognised the reformulation as significant but issued an unfavourable opinion on the current version. The group says the plant does not meet the standard expected of installations in acceleration zones, the country's least sensitive areas, and Sophia lies outside those zones in a territory with more natural value. ZERO argues it should therefore face at least the same rules.

The project continues to have bad practices and has not sufficiently reduced the continuous areas of solar panels.

The Defence Platform of the Tejo International Natural Park (PNTI) has asked the APA to extend the consultation and to issue an unfavourable environmental impact declaration, arguing the project keeps a "gigantic" dimension. Quercus and Rewilding Portugal maintain their objections, and ZERO would accept the plant only if it met the acceleration-zone rules. Pianist Maria João Pires, who lives in Belgais, urged people to take part and shared videos from entertainment and culture figures calling to "Stop Sophia" on Instagram. Observador reported that submissions rose from about 3,700 to more than 6,500 in the last 24 hours.

Company response and concessions

Lightsource BP director-general Miguel Lobo told journalists the company had been on the ground every day listening to residents, which he said made the process "very different" from the first attempt. The company says it moved the plant away from more sensitive areas and expanded compensation, including tree planting. It promises more than 20 million euros for local communities over 42 years, and it cut the felling of isolated cork and holm oaks to 1,450, 89% of them young, while promising 40,000 new trees of those species. In the first consultation the project drew more than 12,000 submissions, most of them negative, according to Observador.

How the process reached this point

The sequence began with the unfavourable opinion on the original project in December 2025, continued with the government's approval of the acceleration-zone programme in August 2026, and reached the reformulated submission in September 2026. The consultation on the revised plan closed on Wednesday, 21 October, the same day ZERO published its opinion. The Platform's request to extend the deadline was addressed to the APA.