Renewables supply 61% of electricity - The Portugal News
Renewables supply 61% of electricity - The Portugal News
According to REN, until June, photovoltaic production supplied 7% of electricity consumption and biomass 6%, while natural gas production accounted for 19% and the remaining 20% corresponded to the import balance.
"In the semester's total, the hydroelectric productivity index registered 0.79 (historical average of 1), the wind productivity index 0.92 and the solar productivity index 1.07".
In the first six months of the year, electricity consumption was "in line with that seen in the same period of the previous year", presenting a reduction of 0.3%, considering the effects of temperature and working days.
Analyzing only the month of June, electricity consumption recorded a year-on-year growth of 0.5%, driven by above-average temperatures. Adjusting for the effects of temperature and the number of working days, it fell by 1.3%.
In June, the hydroelectric regime was more favourable, registering 1.11 (historical average of 1), while in wind and photovoltaic conditions there were conditions below the average regimes, with the indices registering 0.81 and 0.97, respectively.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.