Portugal’s new record
For six days in a row, more energy was produced from renewable energy sources than was consumed across the entire Portugal. The new record was set between 4 a.m. local time on October 31, 2023 and 9 am on November 6, 2023 – 149 consecutive hours, breaking 2019’s record of 131 hours – during which 1,102 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy were produced. This ended up being more than the country needed, with both industrial and household consumption only reaching 840 GWh. Beating a previous high of 56 consecutive hours, Portugal also managed to go natural gas-free for 131 hours in a row, and for 95 of those hours, produced enough clean energy that some could be exported to Spain.
The country’s main sources of renewable energy are wind and solar, which in the future could be combined into hybrid plants. Portugal aims to decommission all of its natural gas-fired power plants by 2040.
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