Yet another European renewable milestone was reached last week when Portugal’s renewable energy generators powered the entire country for four consecutive days.
For 107 hours, beginning at 6.45 AM on Sunday the 7th of May, a combination of wind, hydro and solar power provided all of the energy needed by the country, prompting widespread praise and providing another demonstration of the viability of renewable energy.
It was during this very same period (on the 8th of May) that German renewable sources provided almost 90% of the country’s energy for a day; so much that, due to coal fired and nuclear plants not being able to power down in time, commercial electricity prices actually turned negative for a time.
Both of these announcements are reminiscent of one particularly windy day back in July 2015 that led Danish wind farms to produce 140% of the nation’s energy needs, with the surplus being sent to Sweden, Germany and Norway.
A spokesman for trade association Wind Europe, Oliver Joy, spoke positively about the trend that appears to be emerging throughout Europe.
He said: “We are seeing trends like this spread across Europe – last year with Demark 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.”
Portugal’s renewable portfolio, and the portion of its energy capacity that it generates, has been growing over the last few years.
Back in 2013, just over 25% of the country’s energy demands were met by power generated using renewable sources. By the end of the following year, this figure had gone up to 63%, though this fell to just under 50% in 2015 following a drought. A little less than half of this (22% of the total energy generated) came from wind turbines.
Europe is quickly becoming an important success story for wind power, with more than 91% of the world’s offshore wind power currently generated from turbines off the Northern coast of the continent.
All of this represents serious and tangible steps towards Europe meeting it’s carbon reduction targets by 2020, as set out in the Paris Agreement.
Speaking of Portugal’s four day green energy binge as it applies to the state of renewable energy as a whole in Europe, SolarPower Europe’s chief executive, James Watson, 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.”
The next big step will be to fully create interconnectivity support, harnessing the export potential for renewable energy, as Denmark have already done and as they demonstrated on that windy July day last year.
Oliver Joy said that with this infrastructure in place, the potential for Europe to accelerate the decarbonisation process is great.
He said: “An increased build out of interconnectors, a reformed electricity market and political will are all essential, but with the right policies in place, wind could meet a quarter of Europe’s power needs in the next 15 years.”
