this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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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.
If you had read the article you would know that these are already largely covered by hydro and wind power and not fossil fuels in Portugal.
The only part that is unusually small (but growing quickly) compared to similar EU countries is PV.
Hydro is more or less constant and wind is random. How does one cover a huge amount of solar energy when it's out? You can't increase hydro and you can't force wind to blow.
Wind tends to happen when there is a lack of sun, and hydro in a country as dry as Portugal is better kept in reserve when there is enough sun, so yes you can turn it on when there is a temporary lack of sun.