EDP Art Reef

A project from Portuguese street artist Vhils, a.k.a. Alexandre Farto, and a power plant on a path toward decarbonization is giving scuba divers new reasons to head underwater in the Algarve. Already known for its purpose-sunk Portuguese Navy warships, the EDP Art Reef sits in just 40 feet of water—a perfectly reasonable depth for new divers to explore. Part art installation and part artificial reef, the site consists of ocean-safe materials removed from coal-fired power stations belonging to Energias de Portugal, the country’s largest supplier of electricity. (EDP plans to phase out coal by 2025 and be net zero by 2040.) Underwater art installations have drawn divers to Cancún, Florida’s Walton County, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but this undertaking is unique in several ways. The restoration group Plant a Coral helped transplant pieces of coral broken by fishing nets onto 13 newly sunken concrete and steel structures. Vhils’ faces, footprints, and other designs speak to humanity’s relationship with the ocean and how a former energy source can transform an unlikely locale to attract new life. Octopi, spider crabs, urchins, and countless fish are already settling in. “It feels as though the sea has submerged these objects rather than them being sunk intentionally,” says Arlindo Serrão, founder of Portugal Dive, a company that organizes dive trips to the spot. “Signs of wear, rust, and encrustation enhance this illusion, making the objects appear as ancient as they would seem in a park at the surface.”

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