this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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Well, this is something! (files.mastodon.social)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Meanwhile in Germany:

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[โ€“] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I'm Portuguese and as much as I'd love to run on 96% green energy I can't believe it... Last time I checked (it was quite a while ago I'll give them that) we imported a lot of nuclear energy from France. So unless France is 100% green and still has a green energy surplus (which it isn't/doesn't) we're just transfering our carbon footprint...

We do have a lot of wind turbines so maybe we don't import as much anymore but still...

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nuclear is green though, so France is a good place to be importing from. It also has the lowest mortality rate per kWh of all power sources, Chernobyl included.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not saying nuclear isn't green btw.

I, personally, am all for nuclear. However given the choice I'd rather my country invests in wind geothermal, solar and others. Nuclear can be a liability as we've seen in Ukraine.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is Portugal a good place for wind energy? It seems like it should be with a long coastline that faces west from Europe.

I can't wait for the day when places that have renewable energy advantages become net exporters, supplying renewable power to the rest of the world.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep! Maybe not the best overall in Europe, but we do have some strong winds and also very sunny days so solar energy is also easy to come by.

In one of our archipelagos (Azores) we also have geothermal power plants since we have active vulcanos there.

Aditionally I think there were some major developments in harnessing the ocean's waves so on that front, I think we would absolutely crush it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's awesome. I wonder if the mountains would also make pumped hydroelectric possible too, so Portugal could use a clean method of storing power for when the wind was calm and the sun wasn't shining.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hopefully one day :)

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

When it comes to saving the environment, and considering you're in the EU, the liability of nuclear as seen in Ukraine is minimal

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Novaya Kahovka power plant is very not nuclear tho

Spoiler alertIt is hydro power plant.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well that was just an example anyways. I thought it was nuclear but I might be wrong, never really looked too much into it.

Any nuclear power plant can become a liability during war times though. Hopefully it never comes to that, but you never know...

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think there's a nuclear power plant in Ukraine a lot of people know about in Chernobyl or something maybe? I'm guessing that's what they're hinting at.

[โ€“] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't know about the others but I don't think I can really consider solar green, it needs a lot of silicon not only to make enough panels to have an impact but also needs the extraction of stuff for batteries too, still better than coal ig.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Oh no. It needs lots of sand.

What's the problem with silicon?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I still think in the long run it's worth it. Maybe not as good as wind I guess, but 100% better than gas/oil/coal etc...

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

There's definitely some figure manipulation going on here. Portugal might claim it's importing green energy from France, meanwhile France might stack up its renewable generation against its overall demand to make its claims, meaning both are ignoring much of the fossil fuel generation from France.

It's still good progress, but the devil really is in the details. There's a reason this post doesn't call it "net-zero" or any other industry recognised term.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The biggest chunk of our yearly consumption is still gas. And France's carbon intensity is much lower than ours still (one of the lowest in Europe), so any energy we're importing from them is actually lowering our CO2 average.