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Norway, Iceland -100% renewable energy, and other countries following

flag-EUEU: 100 Percent Renewable Energy Is Here, The Energy Collective, David Thorpe, 13 June 13 June 13, 2013 Two questions for you: how many countries in the world source their electricity 100% from renewable sources? And which major European nation that is well-endowed with renewable energy resources, is the worst at exploiting them?

renewable_energy The answers can be gleaned from the recently updated International Energy Statistics of Electricity Generation from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy…….
These two countries are Norway and Iceland. Iceland has been at it since 1980. Admittedly it’s a tiny country, and is well-blessed with hydropower and geothermal, which provide 74% and 26% of the electricity respectively.
Norway, with a larger population of 5 million, has also been running almost exclusively on renewable hydroelectricity since 1980. However it also has recently added other renewables, wind and biomass (1.5%).
Another country to rely, perhaps bizarrely, on hydroelectricity is Portugal. Because of periodic droughts, the proportion of its contribution to overall electricity supply varies from year to year from between 38% and 58%. As a result, it has invested massively in wind power and now nearly one fifth the Portuguese electricity is from this source. Surprisingly solar contributed in 2012 under 1%, but biomass generated 5%.
Other countries also rely heavily on renewables. Denmark uses renewable sources for 45% of its energy: wind (30%) and biomass (15%). Spain provided its 47 million people with 31% renewable electricity in 2011. Italy, with 60 million inhabitants, now sources 17% of its electricity renewably. Germany is on 19%. France, 16%. Even the United States is higher than you-know-who at 12.7% (unfortunately, down from 1983 when it was 14.1%).
You-know-who is, of course, the UK, whose total renewable contribution is just 10%…………http://theenergycollective.com/david-k-thorpe/237161/it-s-not-utopian-100-renewable-electricity-here

June 14, 2013 - Posted by | EUROPE, renewable

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