Portugal
runs for four days straight on renewable energy alone
Zero
emission milestone reached as country is powered by just wind, solar
and hydro-generated electricity for 107 hours
Arthur Neslen
Wednesday 18 May
2016 14.59 BST
Portugal kept its
lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last
week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of
national energy network figures.
Electricity
consumption in the country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro
power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on
Saturday 7 May until 5.45pm the following Wednesday, says the
analysis by the Sustainable Terrestrial System Association and the
Portuguese Association of Renewable Energies (Apren).
News of the zero
emissions landmark comes just days after Germany announced that clean
energy had powered almost all its electricity needs on Sunday 15 May,
with power prices turning negative at several times in the day –
effectively paying consumers to use it.
Oliver Joy, a
spokesman for the Wind Europe trade association said: “We are
seeing trends like this spread across Europe - last year with Denmark
and now in Portugal. The Iberian peninsula is a great resource for
renewables and wind energy, not just for the region but for the whole
of Europe.”
James Watson, the
CEO of SolarPower Europe said: “This is a significant achievement
for a European country, but what seems extraordinary today will be
commonplace in Europe in just a few years. The energy transition
process is gathering momentum and records such as this will continue
to be set and broken across Europe.”
Last year, wind
provided 22% of electricity and all renewable sources together
provided 48%, according to the Portuguese renewable energy
association.
While Portugal’s
clean energy surge has been spurred by the EU’s renewable targets
for 2020, support schemes for new wind capacity were reduced in 2012.
Despite this,
Portugal added 550MW of wind capacity between 2013 and 2016, and
industry groups now have their sights firmly set on the green
energy’s export potential, within Europe and without.
“An increased
build-out of interconnectors, a reformed electricity market and
political will are all essential,” Joy said. “But with the right
policies in place, wind could meet a quarter of Europe’s power
needs in the next 15 years.”
In 2015, wind power
alone met 42% of electricity demand in Denmark, 20% in Spain, 13% in
Germany and 11% in the UK.
In a move hailed as
a “historic turning point” by clean energy supporters, UK
citizens last week enjoyed their first ever week of coal-free
electricity generation.
Watson said: “The
age of inflexible and polluting technologies is drawing to an end and
power will increasingly be provided from clean, renewable sources.”
• This article was
amended on 19 May and 21 December 2016. An earlier version said that
in 2013 Portugal generated 27% of its electricity from nuclear, 13%
from hydro, 7.5% from wind and 3% from solar, according to Eurostat
figures. In fact those figures are for the whole of the EU; Portugal
does not have any nuclear power plants. The organisations that
undertook the analysis, which were not identified initially, have
been added. After publication, it was pointed out that some
fossil-fuel-generated power is used, for example, for pumping in
hydro schemes. Notwithstanding that element, Apren says, renewable
energy generated enough power to meet Portugal’s demand over the
four days.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário