After years of vigorous development, thanks to the factors of unique geographic environment and policy promotion, green-energy power hits a landmark in Portugal in March, when the nation's power consumption was 40-year high, with its output reaching 104% of power need, including 55% for hydraulic power and 42% for wind power.

The share breaks the nation's previous record in Feb. 2014, when green power met 99.2% of the nation's power need.

The share is a far cry from 2013, when the share of green power stood at only 25.7%. Green power, however, is an unstable power source, vulnerable to variations in sunshine, wind power, and rainfall. In 2017, the share of green power in Portugal, for instance, plunged, as a drought, the severest in 20 years, slashed output of hydraulic power.  

The unprecedented share of green power in March is credited to abundant rainfall, facilitating hydraulic-power generation, this year. Portuguese grid operator REN pointed out that green power output hit 4,812 GWh in March, 103.6% of the nation's power consumption in the month, even peaking at 143% on March 11.

The abundant green power output cut the nation's CO2 commission by 1.8 million metric tons in the month, in addition to saving 21 million euros for the purchase of emission allowance.

The Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN) reported that green energy has secured a prominent status in the nation's power supply structure, predicting that green energy will be able to meet the entirety of the nation's power need in an economic and effective manner by 2040, although the nation still needs natural gas-fired thermal power plants as a supplementary power source for the time being

With technological progress and cost reduction for energy storage having diminished the effect of weather factor, it is no longer unfeasible for green energy to become the sole source of power. Consequently, Portugal has been fixated in boosting green energy capacities, tailoring their installations to various geographic conditions.

Most wind-power facilities are located in the windy northern region, while the sunny southern region is more suited to PV power stations, whose development lags behind the former at present.

The previous landmark in the development of green energy in the nation was attained in May 2016, when green power, including solar energy, wind power, biomass energy, ground heat, and hydraulic power, met the entirety of the nation's power need for four consecutive days.

(Written by Daisy Chuang; First photo courtesy of peregrino27 via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)