Yet PV is artificially held back by very unfavourable feed-in regulation. Really a pity as the potential is so high.
Not so high without an adequate storage.
I am talking about feed-in from home users, which would work largely without storage if it was allowed to feed the excess into the grid during the day (like it is possible in most other EU countries).
But due to bureocratic hurdles this is basically not allowed in Portugal and the thus required in-home batteries are largely unaffordable by the relatively low income households here.
I think that was the case before but changed last year. I know people who sell the excess during the day. Not sure if you are from Portugal but here is a link in Portuguese https://www.adene.pt/venda-do-excedente-no-autoconsumo-simplificada/
Thanks for the link. I’ll have a closer look at this.
Where is even coming from when there is no sun?
No sun in Portugal? Maybe in rainy Porto.
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There are those things called nights, clouds and shorter winter days 🤷♂️
There are also such things as other power sources and demand variations 🤷♂️ Very few people run their electric stoves at 2am.
Look, this is not rocket science. It works well in other EU countries. No one claimed that PV could cover 100% of the electricity demand without storage.
Other things run through night such as heat pumps, water heaters, EV charging etc. And those other sources are usually fossil fuel based which emit a lot of pollution and CO2. And it doesn’t work that well in other countries when you reach a threshold.
Portugal has a huge installed base of hydro-generation, some of which is capable of being used to store excess energy (by pumping it up to the upper basin of the dam for later use in generation).
The mix of lots of hours of sunlight, the country being not so hot that solar panels suffer from lower efficiency due to heat and hydro-generation which can be used for storing excess power produced for use later, makes the country pretty much optimal for solar generation.
No, the reason for the crap legislation of solar self-generation can probably be found in the deep incestuous relationship between the two main political parties and the largest power generation company of the country, alongside Portugal being one of the most corrupt countries in the EU (notably, the country in the EU which has the least number of anti-Corruption measures from the EU-Commission implemented)
Well, I doubt it a bit how much pumped hydro capacity is there in Portugal, but you’d need an obscene capacity if you wanted to go full renewable partially based on solar panels. Found this by quick search:
"However, the dependency on electricity imports from Spain will increase significantly, especially in drier years. " https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352152X24037800
Basically you’d be using Spain as energy source when you don’t have enough energy at hand.
Portugal is so sunny that Lisbon is literally the
citycapital of Europe with the most hours of sunlight per year.
Weird definition of “led by solar”
Hydroelectric and wind power each contributed 28% and 27% of electricity generation, respectively, with PV providing 10% and biomass 6%. REN noted that solar production grew 37% year on year, driven by rapid capacity expansion.
Solar has only started growing very recently as the government has focused on large projects and made sure home generation for feed-in is nonviable.
This choice has, “of course”, no relation to how massive projects means lots of money greasing palms whilst home generation does not.
Most of which is hydro-generation, and most of that is the product of an installed base or projects started way back in Fascist days (so, half a century ago). By the way, this is way is why the year before this value was much lower - below 50% - since there was a drought in the country (which, by the way, is something Global Warming models predict will become a far more common occurrence) so hydro-generation produced way less.
Meanwhile solar generation, which should be very widespread in the country containing the capital of Europe with the most hours of sunlight per year (and yet not as hot as North Africa, hence solar panels here do do not suffer as much from heat related lowering of efficiency) has barely started going and home solar generation is pretty limited due to - as somebody else already pointed out - really bad legislation (which, knowing my country as I do, I have little doubt it’s the product of Corruption in favour of well connected companies such as the largest energy provider in the country - which, “curiously”, employs lots of politicians from the two main parties).
The country could have massive amounts of home solar - like Germany but with way more productivity due to way more hours of sunshine - but it doesn’t and solar is all about massive projects, which, surprise surprise, just happen to have the biggest payouts for politicians who need their hands greased.
As usual, my country is a shit show which only succeeds at something by sheer absolute luck and hence not at all in a reliable and constant way, because it sure as hell isn’t due to it being properly managed or having clean competent politicians.
Well, at least it’s better than in Spain /s
I wouldn’t put any bets down on which one is winning the “most crooked shitshow” competition…
