Using Only Renewable Energy, Portugal Powered Its Entire Country for Four Days
Portugal just did something pretty amazing. In fact, it’s historic — something no other nation has ever done. Portugal just powered its entire country’s electricity needs for four consecutive days using nothing but renewable energy. Using a combination of solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels, geothermal heat and hydroelectric power, Portugal powered everything requiring electricity for 107 hours between Saturday morning, May 7, 2016, and Wednesday evening, May 11, 2016. The country’s ZERO System Sustainable Land Association, in collaboration with the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association, released information about this impressive achievement on its website. “These data show that Portugal can be more ambitious in a transition to a net consumption of electricity from 100 percent renewable, with huge reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming and consequent climate change,” according to a statement on the ZERO website. “We are seeing trends like this spread across Europe — last year with
Denmark and now in Portugal,” Oliver Joy, Wind
Europe trade association spokesman, told
The Guardian. “The Iberian peninsula is a great resource for
renewables and wind energy, not just for the region but for the whole of
Europe.” Image Credit: Ricardo Santos
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