Porto Santo, a Portuguese island in the Madeira archipelago, has 5 thousand inhabitants e a thousand means of transport (with notable surges in the summer months) and the perfect size to become a laboratory to experience a "smart" future, looking for solutions to improve theenergy efficiency, the circular economy, electric and shared mobility.
The project Smart Fossil Free Island wants to make Porto Santo the first European Smart Island to free itself from dependence on fossil fuels. Launched in 2018 by the regional government of Madeira (on which the island depends, also energetically), it focuses on the use of smart and sustainable technologies to increase the energy independence of its inhabitants and promote the production of renewable energy. At the forefront of the EMM partners, Empresa de Electricidade de Madeira, the energy provider that supplies the Portuguese islands of the archipelago and Renault, involved in the project with an experiment that aims to implement new electric mobility solutions on the island and shared, widening the perimeter to the use of second life batteries, to the so-called smart charging.
Porto Santo, like many smaller islands, from an energy point of view, discounts the need to connect to an external source (in this case Madeira), which entails critical issues such as the use of ships for supplies, or the use of diesel generators necessary to cover the summer peaks of tourism. The aim of the experimentation is therefore to aim for the use of renewable sources, so as to produce clean energy. Then we need a sustainable mobility plan to reduce its environmental impact by proposing car sharing solutions for electric cars powered by food thanks to a model of smart grid.