Cascais Municipal Council (CMC), through the municipal company Cascais Próxima, responsible for managing mobility, urban spaces and energy, is building the first production, storage and supply unit for hydrogen-powered vehicles, once again putting the municipality of Cascais one step ahead on the road to innovation and sustainability.
Aiming to invert the paradigm we currently face, production should begin this year.
We know that 50% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the transport sector, which makes the search for more sustainable alternatives one of today's main concerns. In this context, electric mobility, biofuel and hydrogen - the so-called sustainable fuels - are the main protagonists of a greener future.
For Cascais, the use of hydrogen is a key part of the strategy defined to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, i.e. making the balance between emissions and removals of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) from the atmosphere zero. In this context and in another context, Cascais Ambiente is developing a project to produce H2 from urban waste.
The National Strategy - H2 sets itself the main targets for 2030:
5% green hydrogen in final energy consumption, road transport and industry;
15% of green hydrogen injected into natural gas networks;
50 to 100 hydrogen refuelling stations;
2 to 2.5 GW of production capacity (electrolysers).
Green hydrogen is considered to be produced exclusively from processes that use energy from renewable sources. For this reason, green hydrogen should be understood as renewable hydrogen, whose GHG emissions throughout the life cycle of its production should be zero or very close to zero.
Source: Portuguese Environment Agency
- By building a production, storage and supply unit, Cascais becomes the first municipality in the country to have one of these infrastructures.
- Cascais has gone from a pilot project to an efficient and reliable hydrogen-powered public transport (PT) operation, with four buses already running on the M38, M43 and M44 lines.
- This unit makes CMC self-sufficient, reflecting a strong commitment to sustainability.
- Initially, the unit will be used for municipal self-consumption. All the necessary certifications have been requested to open it to the public.
- It makes it possible to use energy and water efficiently.
- It avoids the production of waste, promoting its valorisation or disposal in order to avoid or reduce its impact on the environment.
- It represents an investment of around one million seven hundred thousand euros by the local authority.
- The station will have the capacity to produce up to 389kg per day, of which only 100kg is needed to supply the daily TP operation. The rest of the production will serve other stakeholders who wish to accompany the transition to sustainable mobility using hydrogen. - There will be two dispensers for refuelling at 350bar and 700bar.
The experience gained over the years has shown that decarbonising public passenger transport must include the use of hydrogen as an effective solution, both for its environmental and operational advantages:
- The hydrogen solution provides greater autonomy: while the electric bus has a range of 300 to 350 kilometres, the hydrogen fuel cell bus has an approximate range of 600 kilometres (practically double).
- Charging times are also significantly shorter: an electric bus takes at least 4 hours to fully charge, while the hydrogen fuel cell bus refuels in 10 minutes.
The experience gained over the years has shown that decarbonising public passenger transport must include the use of hydrogen as an effective solution, both for its environmental and operational advantages.
This project responds to 4 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- 7. affordable and clean energy;
- 11. sustainable cities and communities
- 12. sustainable production and consumption
- 13. climate action.
Explore and create data visualizations with the Environment & Energy data available in open format.
Cascais has an immeasurable natural asset, from coastline to the natural park, as well as its riverside. Aiming to enhance and maintain this richness, the municipality develops innovative and sustainable projects and activities, while seeking to address environmental and planet preservation challenges.
Cascais' network of air quality and meteorological sensors began monitoring in 2002, with the installation of a sensor in the center of Cascais. Since 2020, a system of eleven monitoring devices has been implemented, dedicated to the measurement of pollution and meteorology indicators.
These are distributed throughout the municipality, in order to ensure the representativeness of the measurements. The data is accessible and available on Open Data. The entity responsible is Cascais Ambiente.
Explore the stations' data here.
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Launched in March 2022, the iTree Project studies the impact of urban forestry.
Using its App, it's possible to identify the urban trees in Cascais and study their benefits. As an example, it shows the ecosystemic value of each one of the 15 000 urban trees identified in the municipality. As a result of the protocol with Instituto Superior de Agronomia, 2 600 trees of 130 different species have already been studied.
Cascais Smart Pole by NOVA SBE is the first living lab for decarbonization. It is located in Carcavelos and intents to promote actions through entrepreneurship and civic action for sustainable development and carbon neutrality. This project will follow both local and national goals set for 2050 with the aim of carbon neutrality.
Cascais Smart Pole is a partnership between Alfredo de Sousa Foundation, NOVA School of Business & Economics, Cascais Council, Cascais Ambiente, Get2C, PRIO BIO, Veolia and Avfallsteknisk Montasje AS (Norway) and funded by EEA Grants.
The Energy Matrix intends to diagnose the current energy consumption patterns in the municipality, and thus identify which sectors responsible for higher consumption, as well as which are the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions (the main greenhouse gas - GHG - responsible for climate change).
This analysis will allow the definition of mitigation strategies, but also identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency and the insertion of more renewable energies suitable for the municipality.
With analyses defined by 5-year periods, it is possible to identify consumption by types of energy and activity sectors.
2010-2015 Analysis | 2000-2005 Analysis
The Water Matrix characterizes and quantifies the main water flows in the municipality, identifying the main actors in the water cycle in Cascais.
This information allows for the definition of a set of measures and actions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals where water is targeted as the main element.
The study made it possible to synthesize information on the various stages of the water cycle (precipitation, runoff, water lines and artificial flows, water supply systems and wastewater and rainwater drainage), as well as to characterize the water balance of the municipality for a five-year period.
By understanding the various phases of the process and the parameters that influence it, stakeholders (as well as academics and citizens interested in the topic) can understand the efficiency of the cycle, and based on that, define targets that improve its performance, in order to meet the overall goals for aquifer sustainability.
AdaptCascais is a municipal fund to support associations and private entities in carrying out actions designed for climate change adaptation.
The 2021 edition funded 8 projects worth up to 3000€ each, in the following categories: Awareness, Communication and training campaigns; School engagement; Ecological requalification to reduce vulnerabilities; Natural-based solutions for green space promotion; and Water efficiency actions.
The project led to 163 activities involving 2 075 participants from 7 schools, and engaged 337 000 people on social networks. It has led to an improvement in environmental quality by the recover of 6 000 kg of plastic from the ocean, and 380 kg collected in our streets. As an addition, 91 trees were planted and 1 150m of natural streams were rehabilitated.
The Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality represents a natural evolution that consolidates the practices developed by the municipality in favour of the environment and the resilience of the territory and its populations. It aims to address climate change and the community's need to adapt.
Following the international goals for carbon neutrality and its pioneering role, the municipality started in 2019 a process to define achievable goals, based on an action plan.
The preparation of this plan contemplated several scenarios of GHG emissions based on a reference year (2015), which allows for the early solution of several challenges that may arise until 2050.
Based on the identification of the gap towards carbon neutrality, the best solutions are determined to set in motion faster mitigation processes over the coming years, not forgetting the involvement and proactive role of the community in the achievement of the objectives.
