Move Aside, Coal: Renewables Are Taking Over This Place

For the very first time in Portugal’s history, more than half of its electricity comes from wind and solar sources and thanks to its more than lenient weather, that record will surely be broken again before the end of the year.

“Wind power and interconnection made it possible for Portugal to phase out coal in 2021; solar is now pushing gas off the grid,” explains Matt Ewen, an analyst at Ember, a think tank studying global processes of electric power production.

In 2022, Portugal installed 0.9 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaics, boosting its capacity to generate a total of 2.5 GW, enough to power 1 million homes. April 2023 reports show that such investment paid off since 51% of Portugal’s electricity comes from two renewable electricity sources, wind, and solar. Authorities wish for the offshore sector to reach a capacity of 10 GW by 2030 and to fulfill that objective, they will launch an auction for the country’s first offshore wind turbine farms by the end of this year.