'This
is possible. We did it': the week Portugal ran on renewables
Campaigners
say the 107 hours when the country was powered by wind, sun and water
show they can replace fossil fuels
Sam Jones in Alto
Minho
@swajones
Monday 26 December
2016 08.00 GMT
If you can keep your
gaze off the hilltops, imagine away the pylons and forget the
occasional tractor of an uncertain vintage coughing along the narrow
roads, little appears to have changed in the valleys of north-eastern
Portugal for decades, perhaps even centuries.
The gnarled
alvarinho vines have been relieved of their fruit to make vinho
verde, an old woman in black herds her sheep through a hamlet and
hungry eagles hover over the fields, scanning the land for lunch.
But look up, past
the villages, the clumps of stout ponies and the wolf-haunted forests
of pine, oak and eucalyptus, and the harbingers of an environmental
revolution are silhouetted against the December sky.
The 130 giant wind
turbines that sprout from the peaks, slicing the air with a rhythmic
sigh, have helped Portugal to a remarkable achievement. For four and
a half days in May the country ran entirely on electricity from
renewable sources: wind, hydro and solar power.
Despite fears of a
blackout, the lights stayed on for a record 107 hours between 6.45am
on Saturday 7 May and 5.45pm the following Wednesday.
Francisco Ferreira,
president of the Portuguese environmental NGO Zero, got wind of what
was going on when a friend called that weekend. “He said: ‘I’ve
been looking at the graphs and for the past two days we’ve been
100% renewable on electricity production.’ After that, we looked at
the data and arrived at 107 hours. We confirmed it with the national
energy network, who said we’d had 4.5 days.
“It was great to
see that the system was working; to see that we could manage all
these renewables even though the circumstances were quite
challenging.”
Ferreira and his
fellow clean energy advocates hold up those few days as further proof
that renewables can reliably replace fossil fuels.
Things may have been
helped along by the fact that a good chunk of the 107 hours fell over
the weekend – when demand is lower – and by an unusually
co-operative Mother Nature, who saw to it that the sun shone and the
wind blew favourably.
But supporters of
renewable power insist it was down to much more than luck. António
Sá da Costa, managing director of the Portuguese renewable energy
association Apren, argues it was the result of years of investment
and cooperation.
“It was the coming
together of three factors, without which none if it would have been
possible,” he says. “The first was that we had the power plants
in place to take advantage of the natural conditions during that
period; second, it was only possible because of the wind, water and
sun. The third was that we had the operational grid capability – in
terms of both distribution and transportation – to manage this type
of situation.”
Yes, the timing was
lucky, he adds. But that does not lessen the achievement of linking
up hundreds of dispersed renewable power plants instead of taking the
easier option of relying on production from one large thermal one.
Or, to put it a
little more pithily: “When Cristiano Ronaldo scores a goal, people
say it was lucky. No. It wasn’t lucky. It was a lot of training, a
lot of preparation and a lot of things. In our case it wasn’t just
luck.”
Sá da Costa traces
Portugal’s interest in renewable energy back to 1970, when almost
all the electricity consumed in the country was from renewable
hydropower plants.
However, as the
country developed economically, demand outstripped supply, forcing it
to look to more conventional sources. It wasn’t until the end of
the last century when windfarms appeared in Madeira and, later, on
the mainland, that people started to take renewables more seriously.
Although Portugal
has been a frontrunner on clean energy for more than a decade –
Altos Minhos was Europe’s largest onshore windfarm when it opened
eight years ago – the country’s weather and geography have yet to
be fully harnessed.
Portugal’s climate
varies between wet and dry years. In wet years, hydropower is the
main source of energy, followed by wind and coal. In dry years,
however, coal is first, followed by wind and hydro.
According to Apren’s
figures, renewable energy has been responsible for 59% of national
energy production during a wet 2016, with 41% from fossil fuels.
Hydro power has yielded 32%, wind 25%, and solar close to 2%.
Efforts to increase
the renewable sector have been hit by Portugal’s economic crisis,
which has spooked would-be investors and slowed growth.
Sá de Costa and
Ferreira both say the country has to do far more to exploit its
thousands of annual hours of sunshine through the creation of more
solar farms.
“That’s the real
push we need for the future,” says Ferreira. “In the winter,
between November and June, hydro and wind can probably guarantee
[things]. But from May or June to October and November, we could rely
less on wind, and much less on hydro.”
Despite the
slowdown, Sá de Costa is bullish about Portugal’s capacity to
comfortably meet and exceed EU targets for member states to have at
least a 27% share of renewable energy consumption by 2030. With
sufficient investment and construction – more windfarms and many
more solar farms – he believes that Portugal could be on course to
generate 60% of its energy through renewables by 2020 and 100% by
2040.
Jorge Seguro
Sanches, Portugal’s energy secretary, says the country is on track
to see renewable energy accounting for 31% of its energy use by 2020.
He also says the government is heavily promoting a solar power
programme as part of its plans to reduce dependence on oil imports
and foster the development of a sustainable technology hub.
“In the past few
years, we have seen a prosperous boom in windfarms,” he says.
“Nevertheless, the market nowadays is oriented towards photovoltaic
solar energy, as a result of its high technological development and
the decline of investment costs. This is a new path for the near
future, [and] will guarantee the sustainability of the Portuguese
electricity system.”
In the misty valleys
of Alto Minho, the windfarm is gradually becoming part of the
landscape. Long-horned barrosã cattle graze among the 80-metre-high
turbines and seek out their shade in summer. Hunters in pursuit of
boar, rabbits and birds still crisscross the hillsides but keep a
respectful distance from the technicians who service the plant.
Sometimes, the odd wolf is glimpsed far below the sweeping blades.
For Sá da Costa,
who has something of the glee of a prophet seeing his predictions
coming true, those four and a half days in May were the best possible
riposte to the naysayers.
“Now no one can
come along and say in good conscience that this is impossible. No.
This is possible. Because we did it. And if we did it, it’s also
possible in other countries. It’s just a question of finding how to
do it.”
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