Candidatura Reserva da Biosfera - Santana Madeira Biosfera

Renewable energies
The production of electricity from renewable sources, has suffered in recent years a
strong increase provided largely by the development model adopted by the region. The
penetration of clean energy produced by combining the components water and wind,
currently accounts for about 33.5% of all energy produced.
Madeira Island has 10 hydroelectric and three wind farms being Paúl da Serra the
largest, with about five dozen wind turbines. The contribution from sources of heat
production is becoming less and point to further reductions with the implementation of
new production projects based on solar and wind energy, with the deployment of more
wind turbines and the construction of ponds holding water in Paúl da Serra’s plateau,
which will ensure greater stability in power generation from hydropower. This year is
expected to restructure the Calheta’s hydroelectric power system for 30 MW of power,
installation of a new wind farm with 5MW of power and two photovoltaic parks, one
located in Caniçal with 6MW of power and the other in Paúl da Serra with 9 MW. The
strong growth of energy produced from renewable sources and decrease of the energy
produced from fossil fuels leads to reduce the dependency on imported petroleum
products and pollutant emissions arising from their use, providing a sustainable socio-
economic development with a low carbon footprint.
Waste management
The effort by the municipality of Santana in the area of waste management through
the collection in ecopoints around the county, which allowed that about 83% of the waste
collected in the county would ultimately be used for recycling or incineration with the use
of part of the green solid waste and wood chips in the Public Gardens Municipal.
The waste generated and collected in the municipality of Santana, is then routed
through the transfer system, Screening, Treatment and Recovery Waste of the
Autonomous Region of Madeira for the Transfer Station of the Eastern Zone (ETZL)
situated in the valley of Porto Novo, in Santa Cruz County. This infrastructure, operating
from April 2007, receives and compresses the waste collection in undifferentiated
Transfer Building, followed by its transport to the Solid Waste Treatment Station (ETRS),
Application of Santana, Madeira to Biosphere Reserve – UNESCO - MAB 121