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Portugal Runs on 100% Renewables Dropping Consumer Electric Bills to Nearly Zero for 6 Days in a Row (www.goodnewsnetwork.org)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Portugal Runs on 100% Renewables Dropping Consumer Electric Bills to Nearly Zero for 6 Days in a Row::In total, there were 149 hours of total renewables generation, 95 of which saw the Portuguese grid exporting to Spain

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[–] 56 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I'm pretty sure I still pay all the renewable energy I consume at home. I wish the bill was zero, that would be amazing.

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  • [–] 44 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm going to go ahead and assume that the article means it comes at zero cost to Portugal, as a country, thus not having to import it. It would be fairly misleading though.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    it comes at zero cost to Portugal, as a country, thus not having to import it

    i'm always confused by this. does this include traditional fuel or just the electric grid?

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Our electric company charges 25% more for renewables.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Ah, the old "I'm sucking your money tit as long as I can while my industry dies and I refuse to innovate with my profits" tax.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    There research and infrastructure costs. It's not like it's free.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Thats the "refuse to innovate with my profits" part I said

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    And? It still is going to cost money.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I constantly hear about or see data that solar and wind power are quite a bit cheaper than other methods by now.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Still costs money. It's never going to be free.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Well, in the short-term, yeah. But for the mid- to long-term, it's quite a traditional investment. Pay some money now to build renewables and decommission coal power plants, but eventually break even, because the running cost per kWh produced is quite a bit lower.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yea I was curious about that, is there a certain amount that's paid for? If it was all free, it would incentivize some people to exceed normal usage

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    As I understand, this happens when renewables 'overproduce' and we need to get rid of the power somehow. People can gladly use as much power as they want in that case. Even if someone fills up batteries for free to later sell back into the grid when production normalizes, that is actually very much what we want. It just adds storage capacity and ensures prices will stay low for longer.

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