{"id":654,"date":"2010-08-15T19:19:40","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T23:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/energyrealist.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2010-08-15T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2010-08-15T23:23:16","slug":"portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portugal?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a country somewhere near Spain, famous for not supporting Christopher Columbus to find the New World?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it get mentioned with Greece and Italy as the next economy to destroy the euro and bring on another bout of Angela Merkel\u2019s righteous anger?<\/p>\n

But Portugal today <\/em>gets 45% of its energy from renewable resources \u2013 wind, hydro, sun and ocean waves – up from 17% \u00a0just five years ago, and aiming for 60% by 2020.\u00a0 The article in the New York Times<\/a> really did surprise me.\u00a0 By comparison the US last year produced less than 5% of its energy from renewable resources, and aims for 20 to 25% by 2025 \u2013 with much fudging about even getting to that modest goal.<\/p>\n

Land-based wind power \u2014 this year\u00a0 deemed \u201cpotentially competitive\u201d with fossil fuels<\/a> by the International Energy Agency in Paris \u2014 has expanded sevenfold in Portugal since 2004. And in 2011 Portugal expects to become the first country to inaugurate a national network of charging stations for electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroadly, Europe has had great success in this area,\u201d said John Juech, VP at Garten Rothkopf. \u201cBut that is the result of huge government support and intervention, and that raises questions about what happens when you have an economic crisis or political change; will these technologies still be sustainable?\u201d<\/p>\n

Good question.\u00a0 But the infrastructure, including a smart grid, will be there, people will be trained, attitudes changed, reliance on imported fuels decreased.\u00a0 Maybe Portugal will not meet the 60% in 2020 goal, but they are so far ahead already they have won anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to act urgently to avoid irreparable damage to the planet. What seemed extravagant in 2004 when we decided to go for renewables now seems to have been a very good decision\u201d, says Manuel Pinho, Portuguese economic minister. \u201cWhen you have a programme like ours there is no need for nuclear power. Wind and water are our nuclear power.”\u00a0 Generated by that big fusion reactor in the sky – smart!<\/p>\n

The pictures tell their own story:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mora solar site, at 45MW, is one of the largest and most sophisticated in Europe.\u00a0 It\u2019s small compared to some of the giant 500MW plants planned for the US<\/a>, but not so shabby compared to the more usual 5 or so MW currently being built.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Minho wind turbine farm is the largest in Europe with 130 turbines stretched across the hills.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And there is employment.\u00a0 This German company (front runners get to export their technology) employs some 1200 Portugese \u2013 about 50% of them women who lost jobs in the declining textile industry \u2013 to make 40m (120 ft) long wind turbine blades.\u00a0 [All photos: The Guardian\/Teri Pengilley]<\/p>\n

Of course there are costs \u2013 electricity is expensive and some locals don\u2019t like the turbines.\u00a0 Environmentalists worry about migrating birds.\u00a0 All valid concerns.\u00a0 But then \u2013 expensive electricity will foster more innovation and drive conservation.\u00a0 Would we rather have hidden mines and off-shore wells, rather than visible turbines?\u00a0 The birds?\u00a0 How many are killed by pollution? Pesticides? Pet cats?<\/p>\n

We pay a cost for energy.\u00a0 Portugal has chosen to pay for renewables.\u00a0 In the long term it will probably be a wise choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

at 45% renewable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}