Portugal simply ran on 100% renewables for six days in a…

One current autumn afternoon, I watched the Atlantic gusts collide with the cliffs that rise above Nazaré, Portugal. Rain pelted down, and the world-renowned swells rose into partitions of water that even essentially the most death-defying surfers attain solely by way of Jet Ski. For me, this appeared like a rained-out, late-season seaside getaway, however for the sliver of Iberia that’s Portugal, it appeared like a shiny future. That weekend, the nation of 10 million ran on nothing but wind, solar and hydropower.
Because it turned out, these wet, blustery days had been only a warmup. Portugal produced greater than sufficient renewable energy to serve all its clients for six straight days, from October 31 to November 6.
“The fuel vegetation had been there, ready to dispatch vitality, ought to it’s wanted. It was not, as a result of the wind was blowing; it was raining a lot,” stated Hugo Costa, who oversees Portugal for EDP Renewables, the renewables arm of the state utility, which was privatized in 2012. “And we had been producing with a constructive influence to the shoppers as a result of the costs have dropped dramatically, nearly to zero.”
To hit Paris Settlement local weather targets by 2050, nations must run their grids with out carbon emissions not only for three or six days, however year-round. A handful of nations already do that, due to beneficiant endowments of hydropower, largely developed nicely earlier than the local weather disaster drove funding selections for energy vegetation. Others rating extremely on carbon-free energy due to huge fleets of nuclear vegetation.
Portugal falls right into a completely different, extra relatable bucket: It began its decarbonization journey with some legacy hydropower, however no nuclear capability nor plans to construct any. That meant it had to determine tips on how to minimize fossil gasoline use by maximizing new renewables.
How did Portugal make this occur? It dedicated to constructing renewables early and sometimes, pledging a 2050 deadline for net-zero carbon emissions in 2016, a number of years earlier than the European Union as a entire discovered the conviction to take that step. Portugal’s final coal vegetation shut down in 2022, leaving (imported) fossil fuel because the backstop for on-demand energy.

“The important thing conclusion, for my part, is that it exhibits that the Portuguese grid is ready for very excessive shares of renewable electrical energy and for its anticipated variation: We had been capable of handle each the sharp enhance of hydro and wind manufacturing, and likewise the return to a decrease share of renewables, when natural-gas energy vegetation had been requested once more to provide a number of the nation’s demand,” stated Miguel Prado, who covers Portugal’s vitality sector for Expresso newspaper.
The duty forward for Portugal’s grid decarbonization is to scale back and in the end eradicate the variety of hours when the nation must burn fuel to maintain the lights on. Leaders need fuel era, which made up 21% of electricity consumption from January by means of October, to end completely by 2040.
To succeed in its local weather targets, Portugal has centered on diversification of renewable assets; as an alternative of relying totally on wind, water or solar, it blends every into the portfolio and finds methods to make them extra complementary. The nation’s energy firms are actually chasing main extra offshore wind alternatives, increasing photo voltaic installations and repowering older onshore wind tasks to get extra out of the most effective areas.
Anatomy of a six-day clear vitality streak
After the overthrow of the authoritarian Estado Novo dictatorship in 1974, the newly fashioned state utility Energias de Portugal constructed a sequence of hydroelectric dams on the once-wild rivers that rushed from the japanese mountains to the western coast. The corporate constructed its first onshore wind tasks within the 1990s, when photo voltaic merely couldn’t compete economically, and photo voltaic installations have solely lately began to catch up.
That’s why the grey skies didn’t harm total renewable manufacturing throughout the nation’s current record-setting stretch, as they might have in, say, California or Hawaii. The wind and hydro had been cranking, and that’s what mattered.
Any milestone within the quickly evolving clear vitality sector ought to include particular parameters. So what precisely did the Portuguese grid accomplish earlier this month?
The six-day report refers back to the 149 consecutive hours by which “vitality from renewable sources exceeded the commercial and family consumption wants throughout the nation.” The nation’s earlier report for that metric was 131 hours (just a little over 5 days), achieved in 2019. That doesn’t imply that fossil gasoline vegetation weren’t working — simply that the general renewable era greater than met buyer wants.
However Portugal additionally simply set a nationwide report for assembly your entire electrical energy system’s wants “with out resorting to traditional thermal energy era.” This gas-free stretch began Halloween night time and ran for 131 consecutive hours, about 5 days, practically tripling Portugal’s earlier report of 56 hours straight in 2021. And for 95 of these consecutive hours, Portugal exported clear electrical energy to Spain, as a result of it persistently had greater than it wanted — once more with out burning fuel.
That trendline is the factor to look at. Renewables-friendly climate will come and go, and shoulder months are ripe for renewables to outpace shopper demand as a result of heating or cooling wants are decrease than in the summertime and winter. However the final time Portugal had ultimate circumstances for a renewables report, it solely lasted one-third as lengthy with out burning fuel. As extra wind and photo voltaic capability comes on-line, Portugal expands its arsenal for operating completely on renewables.
This explicit week stood out, nevertheless it exemplifies a historic shift in vitality sources. Pure-gas use for Portugal’s electrical energy manufacturing fell 39% year-over-year for the interval from January to October, based on REN. That introduced total fuel use to its lowest stage since 2006.
Portugal has made grid decarbonization completely tangible for itself. To succeed in its local weather targets, it must take the playbook from this one week in November and run it for longer intervals of time, till ultimately it doesn’t even want fuel on standby. And it has to take action even within the elements of the yr when the winds and the rain don’t lash the low season traveler who’d heard a lot a couple of local weather paying homage to Southern California.