ACCIONA will build a new wastewater treatment plant in Portugal, where it already provides a service to 2 million people

ACCIONA Agua has been awarded the contract for the construction and start-up of the Faro-Olhão Wastewater Treatment Plant(WWTP) on the Algarve (southern Portugal), with a budget of 13.9 million euros. It will provide a service to a population equivalent of 113,200.

Using an advanced process of biological treatment, filtering and disinfection, the plant will have a flow rate of 28,149 cubic metres (m³) per day, with a peak of 3,942 m³ per hour. It is located one kilometre west of Olhão on a site of great natural beauty, and its construction will mean the rehabilitation of the surrounding territory and landscape. The completion period for the project is 965 days, including 365 days dedicated to start-up.

Energy saving

The Faro-Olhão WWTP will be the first one in which ACCIONA Agua will use Nereda® technology, an innovative method of treating wastewater that can be applied to both new and existing plants. In particular, it allows older plants to increase their capacity and improve their performance and it is an excellent solution for the very oldest ones, where greater demands in wastewater processes or treatment mean high energy consumption.  

Thanks to this new technology it has been possible to reduce the plant’s carbon footprint by 50%, and an energy saving of between 20% and 30% in the energy consumed in the water treatment process is expected. The plant also has solar panels that, with an installed capacity of 50 kW, will produce energy for use by auxiliary services.

With this WWTP, ACCIONA Agua continues to consolidate its presence in the water business in Portugal, where it already has around twenty wastewater and four drinking water plants that provide a service to around two million people, almost one-fifth of the country’s population.

A strong presence in the Algarve

Last month the company inaugurated one plant and laid the first stone for another project on the Algarve. It opened the Vila do Bispo wastewater treatment plant, which provides a service to a population of 14,000. The project, representing an investment of two million euros, has a planned flow rate of 3,551m³ per day.

ACCIONA Agua has undertaken all the civil work and the electric equipment and automation for the plant. Together with its partner – the Portuguese construction company Oliveiras – it recently laid the first stone and started building work on the Companheira wastewater treatment plant in Portimão, District of Faro, also on the Algarve. This project has a budget of almost 10.4 million euros and the plant is expected to be fully operational some time in 2018. In this case, the average flow rate will be 32,061 m³ per day and a population of almost 140,000 people will received the service.

In September 2013 ACCIONA Agua was awarded the extension of the Monte da Rocha (Portugal) drinking water plant at Ourique, in the south of the Alentejo District, as part of a joint venture in which it holds 70% (the other 30% belongs to the Lucios group). The contract is valued at 3.5 million euros, and after the extension the plant is expected to reach a flow rate of 6,400 m³/day to cover a population estimated at 35,000 people.

ACCIONA also has a strong presence in the energy sector in Portugal. It was a pioneer by building the 45.78 MWp Amareleja photovoltaic plant, one of the biggest in the world equipped with tracking of the entire solar field when it was installed. Built in record time – 13 months – to its grid connection in December 2008, this plant demonstrates ACCIONA’s capability to undertake large-scale photovoltaic projects with full guarantees. It has 2,520 solar trackers of in-house technology that incorporate 262,080 photovoltaic modules, producing around 93 GWh per year, equivalent to the demand from approximately 30,000 homes. ACCIONA Energía also has 16 wind farms with a total capacity (coinciding with consolidated capacity) of 119.70 MW.

ACCIONA's presence in Portugal