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Comment by codecamper | Hacker News Reader

That's pretty amazing. I'm actually here in Portugal, down in the Algarve & you don't actually see very many solar panels or wind turbines around. Though there is a big geothermal plant not too far from here.

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Afaik, mostly relevant sources of geothermal power in Portugal are in the Azores islands (wonderful place to visit, btw). Regarding wind power, the highest locations are on the northern part of the country (above Lisbon), so most wind turbines are there. Same thing for water dams, as it is natural that most rivers and streams are on mountain's valleys.

Only solar power is quite pervasive, as Portugal is known to have a very high average number of days of solar exposure. I live some 3/4 kms of a quite big solar power array that is the source of the majority of electrical power in the nearby houses. And in Alentejo (just north of Algarve), you can find the Amareleja power station which in 2008 was considered the largest solar power array in the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moura_Photovoltaic_Power_Stati...).

As others said you'll find more wind and hydro power in the north. As far as solar power is concerned, there's not so much in Portugal, because it was expensive until some couple of years. Nowadays we have a remuneration scheme that allows you to consume directly from your solar panel, thus not increasing the accumulated tariff debt (it is currently at ~5billion€. Spain is worse at ~27billion€. They invested in solar power too early)

A pity.

Portuguese solar can take a big bite out of French peak demand. The sun sets on Marseilles, and everyone's coming home for dinner, but there's still some sun in PT.

IIRC, France has been very adamant in refusing to get its energy from spain and portugal due to political reasons. This became patently obvious in the EU's energy union negotiations, and in the way France insisted in forcing the so called Pyrenees power bottleneck (the only limitation to Spain and Portugal's ability to supply electrical energy to France)

http://www.reuters.com/article/france-spain-electricity-idUS...

Insane. The French prefer depending on Nigerois uranium instead of Portuguese solar? Unreal.

Learn a new thing every day.. Thanks

I'm Portuguese but far from knowledgeable in matters of energy. Going north from Lisbon you'll start to see many wind turbines while in the freeway and inner roads.

You'll see a lot more in the centre of the country than in the south.

That's probably a thermal-electric (gas/other type of fossil fuel burning station) To my knowledge there are no geo-thermal station in Portugal.

Just so you can improve your knowledge, Portugal as geo-thermal power plants in Azores.

Sorry had that edit open in a tab i ended up not submitting, you are of course correct =). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Portugal

> To my knowledge there are no geo-thermal station in Portugal.

There are,mainly in the Azores islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Portugal

In the north they're everywhere.

In Algarve, between Lagos and Aljezur there's quite a few wind turbines.

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