Elyse Energy Picks Figueira da Foz for an €800 Million 200,000-Tonne Sustainable Aviation Fuel Plant on 31.8 Hectares in Marinha das Ondas — Environmental Scope Consultation Runs Until 1 June

French sustainable-fuels developer Elyse Energy has chosen Figueira da Foz for an €800 million sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant with a planned output of 200,000 tonnes a year, lodging a Proposta de Definição de Âmbito with the environmental authority and opening a public consultation that runs until 1 June 2026. The 31.8-hectare site sits in the parish of Marinha das Ondas, adjacent to The Navigator Company's pulp-and-paper industrial complex on the Atlantic coast south of the Mondego mouth.

The PDA — Proposta de Definição de Âmbito — is the first formal step in Portugal's environmental impact assessment (AIA) ladder, used to scope what an eventual Estudo de Impacte Ambiental must analyse. The public-consultation window into the scope document closes on Monday next week. A full AIA filing, the licensing decision and the construction calendar all sit downstream of the consultation outcome.

What Elyse Is Building

Elyse Energy markets itself as a producer of low-carbon synthetic fuels using power-to-liquid and biogenic-feedstock processes. At the announced scale, a 200,000-tonne / year output would make the Figueira da Foz plant one of the largest dedicated SAF facilities in Iberia — comparable in nameplate capacity to Repsol's Cartagena conversion project across the border in Murcia. The site choice is industrial-logic-led: proximity to Navigator means access to existing utility corridors, port logistics down the Atlantic coast and, potentially, biogenic CO₂ off-take from the pulp mill — a feedstock pathway Elyse has used in its French and Spanish projects.

Why Figueira da Foz

Three factors anchor the choice. First, the Navigator industrial cluster carries an envelope of permitting, water and grid capacity that a greenfield Atlantic site would otherwise have to build from scratch. Second, the Port of Figueira da Foz offers liquid-bulk handling that can move SAF to Lisbon, Porto or Sines by coastal shipping rather than road. Third, the 31.8-hectare footprint sits inside an industrial-use zone in the PDM da Figueira da Foz, shortening the urban-planning fight that has stalled other large-format energy projects elsewhere in Portugal.

What the Project Does for the EU SAF Mandate

The ReFuelEU Aviation regulation forces fuel suppliers at EU airports to blend a minimum percentage of SAF into kerosene, rising from 2% in 2025 to 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035 and 70% by 2050. Portugal's two largest airports — Humberto Delgado and Sá Carneiro — together uplift roughly 2 million tonnes of jet fuel a year, implying a minimum SAF call of 40,000 tonnes in 2025 and around 120,000 tonnes by 2030. The Elyse facility, at 200,000 tonnes, would more than cover the Portuguese domestic shortfall and create export capacity into Spain, France and the wider EU SAF-deficit market.

What This Means for Expats

• Consultation: the PDA scope document is publicly available through the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente portal until 1 June 2026; residents and NGOs can lodge contributions on what the full AIA should examine.
• Construction timing: EU permitting comparables put a 200,000-tonne SAF plant on a 4–6 year build cycle, suggesting first production no earlier than 2030 even on the optimistic case.
• Air-fare pass-through: the ReFuelEU mandate already feeds into ticket pricing; a local SAF plant reduces the Iberian premium but does not remove it.
• Adjacency risk: the Navigator complex sits inside a sensitive coastal zone; the AIA will need to address air-quality and water-discharge cumulative impacts.