Fajã dos Padres is a 2 MW hydro power plant in Madeira, Portugal. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 1,701 homes (estimated). It ranks #412 of 469 Portugal power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1993, it is around 33 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 29.7% of Portugal's electricity; the national grid averages 128 gCO₂/kWh (81.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1022709.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 32.7°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 82% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 20/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
The #100 largest hydro power plant of 122 in Portugal by capacity.
Portugal has 122 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 2,760 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 32.6547, -17.0218 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
