Portugal is planning to increase renewables’ share in electricity production to 80% by 2026, four years sooner than previously planned.

The government announced the strategy ahead of Portugal’s latest solar auction. The new goal signifies a substantial acceleration in the decarbonisation of the country’s power sector. Since 2010 until now, the share of renewables in Portugal’s electricity production has risen from 41% to 58%, Reuters reports.

“Portugal has already taken very significant measures in the energy transition, but the evolution and duration of the war in Ukraine must necessarily imply new measures,” stated cabinet minister Mariana Vieira da Silva.

In addition, the government is also planning to reduce bureaucracy to enable some PV plants to be developed more rapidly. The secretary of state for energy, João Galamba said environmental impact assessments for projects with less than 50MW capacity will no longer be mandatory.

Last week, Galamba said high production and consumption levels of electricity from renewable energy sources “is the best way to guarantee that Portugal won’t be dependent on fossil fuel imports and the best way to have stable and low electricity prices.”

He went on to say, speaking at the Large Scale Solar event, hosted last week by Solar Media: “It has become clear that we need a significant acceleration in the transition from fossil to renewable energy sources in this decade and that solar will continue to play a key role in this process.”

As of 2021, Portugal had around 1.5GW of deployed solar, which the country will aim to increase by a minimum of 9GW by 2030. This is according to data from trade association SolarPower Europe.