Montalegre, Portugal, Dec. 12, 2025 (Lusa) - The construction of the "largest wind farm in the country" is generating more business for restaurants, cafés and bakeries in Salto, Montalegre, where dozens of workers are concentrated, some of whom are housed in 50 containers in the village of Corva.
The small village in the parish of Salto, municipality of Montalegre, district of Vila Real, has about 60 to 70 inhabitants and has seen the number of people passing through almost double in recent days.
José Barroso has a grocery store and café in the middle of this village and said that you see more workers on the weekend, because during the week they are all at work.
"But at the weekend, there is always a bit more movement," he told Lusa.
Spain's Iberdrola is building "Portugal's largest wind farm" in a €350 million investment that includes the installation of 38 wind turbines, which will produce enough energy for 128,000 homes, and said that this is the first project to combine wind and hydro energy.
At the peak of construction, the company expects to create 700 direct jobs, involving several Portuguese companies, and construction will continue until the third quarter of 2026.
Located on the main street in Salto, Vitória Martins started opening the Doce Maria pastry shop an hour earlier to serve breakfast to workers at the Tâmega Wind Farm.
"I come in early to have everything ready to serve them, and it definitely makes all the difference," she said, pointing out that the number of customers has doubled and that October and November used to be "very slow" months for business.
The Ribeiro café-restaurant is also serving more meals these days.
"The workers have been spread out among the various establishments we have here [in Salto], but the number of customers has increased significantly," said owner Alexandra Ribeiro, who also highlighted the importance of this movement at a time of year when there are usually fewer people in this region.
She pointed out that "if it weren't for them", they would have "far fewer customers every day".
According to her, they now serve "around 40 meals a day", though not all are for people involved in construction work.
Isabel Martins, from the Os Pequenos café, said that the impact of the workers who go there for coffee has been "a little positive" and described a village "with more movement" since the works began.
Some houses or rooms have been rented in the parish, and the road constraints caused by transporting wind turbine blades are currently the biggest complaint.
Residents in these areas are looking for alternative routes to the road between Cabeceiras de Basto and Póvoa (Salto) to avoid delays when they encounter vehicles transporting the 85-metre blades.
Iberdrola has placed a notice in various establishments in the village, which reads: "As part of the construction of the Tâmega Wind Farm and for special transport reasons, from 20/11/2025 there will be temporary traffic restrictions".
"My husband takes a different route. I haven't left since they started putting up the wind turbines, but I have to learn the route my husband takes because the normal road is complicated. We may be lucky, or we may not, but they say it's a two-hour wait, stationary," said Alexandra Ribeiro.
Iberdrola said in a statement that all the wind turbine material will be transported by the end of the first quarter of next year.
It specified that more than 110 blades will leave the port of Aveiro in the last phase, bound for the assembly area, with transport being carried out using the “blade lifter” system, which allows the blades to be rotated vertically or horizontally using a hydraulic mechanism where the blade is attached for transport and can reach inclinations of up to 60 degrees.
This, he explained, allows tight bends, inclines, and other obstacles to be negotiated, adapting to existing roads.
The project consists of the Tâmega Norte and Tâmega Sul wind farms, which cover the municipalities of Montalegre, Ribeira de Pena, and Vila Pouca de Aguiar, in the district of Vila Real, and Cabeceiras de Basto, in the district of Braga.
In March 2023, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) issued a favourable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the wind farm complex, subject to conditions. In response to the EIS, Iberdrola redesigned the project, reducing the number of wind turbines from 60 to 38.
The company will implement continuous monitoring of ecological systems during construction, including birdlife, flora, habitats, and archaeology, with a view to mitigating potential impacts, identifying new minimisation solutions, and deepening knowledge of local biodiversity.
PLI/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
