I find stories like this can misrepresent the actual distance from the goal for many countries, or the progress made – if any. In the case of Portugal, it’s just barely returned to the level of renewable electricity production it achieved almost 40 years ago, but the renewable electricity generation at that time 40 years ago was the sort you could use for 24/7 baseload, whereas today we’re using much more intermittent forms of renewable electricity generation so getting a good day or 6 isn’t as meaningful as it might at first appear.
Contrast another story from earlier this year where Norway was paying people to burn electricity because of favorable conditions – disregarding that unusual story, Norway’s electricity generation is 99% renewable and in fact exports renewable energy to its neighbors, and electricity is so inexpensive that 70% of home heating in that cold nation is electric. That’s a real success story.
I find stories like this can misrepresent the actual distance from the goal for many countries, or the progress made – if any. In the case of Portugal, it’s just barely returned to the level of renewable electricity production it achieved almost 40 years ago, but the renewable electricity generation at that time 40 years ago was the sort you could use for 24/7 baseload, whereas today we’re using much more intermittent forms of renewable electricity generation so getting a good day or 6 isn’t as meaningful as it might at first appear.
Contrast another story from earlier this year where Norway was paying people to burn electricity because of favorable conditions – disregarding that unusual story, Norway’s electricity generation is 99% renewable and in fact exports renewable energy to its neighbors, and electricity is so inexpensive that 70% of home heating in that cold nation is electric. That’s a real success story.
But this is due to the industrialization and the resulting higher energy consumption.
TIL about the Carnation Revolution in 1974, and the dictatorship from 1930 to 1974 that focused on keeping Portugal a largely agrarian economy.
Absolutely mind blowing.