While we were all tucked up in layer in the early hr of Halloween , Portugal was about to pop out a record - breaking run . For six days in a wrangle , more energy was produce from renewable energy informant than was consumed across the entire state .

A record-breaking streak

The new book was set between 4 am local time on October 31 and 9 am on November 6 – 149 consecutive hours , breaking 2019 ’s phonograph record of 131 hour – during which 1,102 Gigawatt hour ( GWh ) of renewable energy were produced . This ended up being more than the country needed , with both industrial and household pulmonary tuberculosis only reaching 840 GWh .

Although this record does n’t think of thatfossil fuelplants were n’t operating at all during this time , another national record set during this time demonstrate that may well be possible in the penny-pinching future . Beating a old senior 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 fresh Energy Department that some could be export to neighbour Spain .

Speaking of the achievement in astatementposted to its website , REN , the fellowship in heraldic bearing of electricity and petrol supply in Portugal , said : “ These substantial achievements confirm that Portugal has been maintaining a sustainable trajectory in increasingly integrating indigenous renewable sources , while uphold the principal target of supply security and service of process quality . ”

Ahead of the game

The rural area ’s main source of renewable Energy Department arewindand solar , which in the futurity could be merge into hybrid plants . “ If we commingle wind and solar , what we see is that there is a big complementarity , ” allege Hugo Costa , who oversees the renewables branch of the state public utility company , address toCanary Media . “ Typically , when we have hint be adrift , we do n’t have sun . And when we have sunlight , typically we do n’t have that much wind . ”

As with its ember plant , Portugal aspire to decommission all of its innate accelerator - fired power plant by 2040 . Earlier this year , it also set out plan todoublethe country ’s solar andhydrogenenergy capacity – the country is already the home of Europe’slargest floating solar park . All being well after public hearings , Portugal may be well on its agency to achieving its carbon - disinterest goals .