This project focuses on understanding the success of the Portugal's renewable energy integration to achieve the EU's 2050 carbon neutrality goals. With renewable sources already providing over 73% of Portugal's electricity consumption in 2024, it highlights the Portuguese leadership in sustainable energy transition. The project analyzes Portugal's renewable energy mix-dominated by hydropower, wind, and solar-and its complementarity, addressing challenges such as seasonal variability, operational flexibility, and grid modernization. The complementary use of pumped hydro storage with enhanced support schemes and market design promoting solar and wind integration, as well as cross-border electricity trading with Spain ensures grid stability and optimized market participation.

It examines how supporting schemes combining feed-in tariffs together with contract for differences and the Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) ensure non-excessive revenue stability for producers, while supporting the integration and operation into competitive markets, and identify possible improvements to the supporting schemes. Further, the project explores the transformative role of aggregating renewable energy resources, where small-scale producers, storage, and demand flexibility are grouped into single operational entities, enabling broader market participation and fostering decentralized energy systems.

In addition, it showcases how renewable technologies, such as PV power plants, have started contributing to balancing services, traditionally dominated by conventional power plants. This milestone highlights opportunities for renewable generators to diversify and stack revenues through market participation. Finally, the project addresses renewable energy curtailment, emphasizing Portugal's success in maintaining low rates due to complementary generation methods and proactive planning. However, it acknowledges the growing challenge of securing the supply with non-firm capacity and highlights the need for grid upgrades, for increasing the flexible solutions, and for dynamic market mechanisms to sustain high levels of renewable integration.