Portugal manages to operate for almost a week only with renewable energy

Wind farm in the sea

All of Portugal has worked for four days with renewable energies. It is the first time that a developed country has been using only the power of the wind, water and the sun for so long. to feed the entire electrical grid. The United Kingdom and Germany have made similar attempts, but only managed to stock up For a few hours.

Last year, 74,7% of the national energy production came from non-fossil energies, mainly from water (44,1%) of the total, followed by wind (25,6%) and biomass (4%), for the first time, solar production exceeded 1% of the total, according to data from the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association.

Huelva wind farm

Hydric energy is currently the most abundant, although it will decrease, since they are old facilities and with a potential already exploited. The future is for wind, a technology that has improved a lot in recent years, it is currently the cheapest when considering a new electricity generation project.

According to the state-owned company EDP, wind energy is even cheaper than other conventionalsuch as natural gas or coal. The future is also for solar, although the investment costs of solar are higher since it cannot work 24 hours a day, although the great improvement in the efficiency of the panels will allow its massive installation in the coming years.

Currently, and speaking of money, the citizen does not benefit if the electricity comes from the purchase of coal or oil or from nature. The electricity bill of the Portuguese is, after that of the German, the most expensive in Europe, with a tax burden of 42%, only higher than that of the Danes and Germans, according to Eurostat data. The problem is if we compare the purchasing power of a Portuguese with a Danish or German.

Apart from the myriad ecological advantages, renewables settle the rural population. Generally, facilities are usually built in rural areas, where there are increased wind or water resources. This fact improves rural economies with the creation of jobs, improvement of infrastructures and an increase in tax collection.

renewable auction

EDPR, is the main national generator of energy, has developed wind farms since 1996, has its European headquarters in Madrid, and another office in Houston to manage your assets in the United States and Canada. It has licenses to develop offshore wind farms in Brazil and Portugal.

The change in energy production in Portugal has been very profound in the last 40 years. In 1980 it was one of the most energy-polluting European countries, exactly 27th out of 30 countries, according to a study carried out by Europe Diry 30, because of the Sines thermoelectric plant. But already in 2004, Portugal had achieved that almost 20% of its consumption was renewable energy, while in Spain it was barely 8%.

The European watchdog KeepOnTrack recalls that Portugal has lost steam in the last two years in its program to replace fossil fuels and that, if it continues like this, it will not meet the objective of the European directive so that by 2020 31% of its consumption energetic come from non-fossil sources.

Offshore wind farms in Portugal

In the last ten years, being offshore wind farm of the Iberian Peninsula is already a reality but off the coast of Viana do Castelo, in Portuguese territory, just 60 kilometers from the border with Galicia. It is the new and determined bet of the neighboring country for renewable energies, a field in which Portugal has a great advantage over us, despite the fact that Spain is a world power in terms of -terrestrial-wind energy.

Aeolian Denmark

The Spanish paradox

In the case of offshore wind energy, the Spanish paradox is total. In our country there are no "offshore" wind farms, just some experimental prototypes. Y However, our companies are world leaders also in this technology. Not a single megawatt enters the Spanish network from the sea when in the United Kingdom Iberdrola inaugurated several wind farms, such as the West off Duddon Sands (389 MW), has under construction in Germany and awarded (again in the United Kingdom) the East Anglia One (714 MW), the largest Spanish project in history in the sector of renewables. In addition to Iberdrola, companies such as Ormazabal or Gamesa are also benchmarks.


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