

Portugal Gives Itself a Clean-Energy Makeover - MikeCapone
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/science/earth/10portugal.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

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BSousa
Being Portuguese, I applaud this, but as the article said, lets not forget
about the environmental (and local social) damage it creates. A lot of small
shops that based their business alongside the rivers are now closed. Many
fisherman that fished at those rivers can't anymore. Job creating has been
close to none, and in a country where many people live near poverty (minimum
wage is 500 euros a month, in Porto (second largest city), the average wage is
about 700), high energy (home and car gas) costs are a big deal to many.

But hey, still happy we are doing it, just hoped it would create more wealth
to the 'little' people as well.

~~~
jacabado
I can't quantify but in my home town, Moura, it had a good impact in local
economy. They built there one solar plant with 46 MW capacity which was at the
time the biggest in the world.
([http://translate.google.pt/translate?u=http://economia.publi...](http://translate.google.pt/translate?u=http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/maior-
central-fotovoltaica-comecou-hoje-a-
funcionar_1354423&sl=pt&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8)) They also built a fotovoltaic
pannels factory for constructing the solar plant and which now exports
pannels.

Considering how bad every economic aspect goes there it was really a blessing.
The jobs it created, qualified or non-qualified; the population it brought
(desertification is one of the worst problems there). And they really deserve
it, right now it might be 45ºC there. I work in Lisbon and when I occasionally
go there in the weekend I can barely do anything(hint: fresh beer tastes like
gold there!).

Regarding the cons, the fotovoltaic power doesn't have an environmental impact
as bad as the dams. I guess the only one could be the visual impact. It even
creates the possibiility to cultivate new cultures behind the solar pannels.

But, and there is always a but, there is much controversy about the solar
power. The thing is that you can't store electricity, and as the production
hours depend on the sunlight you will have a period of abundance and a period
of scarcity that will not adjust very well. This will lead to an unbalanced
match of supply and offer and so the efficiency of solar power is lower than
other energies (a similar thing applies to wind power) like the hydropower
where you can control when you want to generate it.

It makes me really proud to see so many good references to Portugal here in
HN, for a country that is in such a bad shape it's good to see some things
might change in the future.

~~~
nanairo
The problem of storing energy is true for many renewable energies but there is
work being done to solve it too.

An example for solar power is the use of special salty compounds that maintain
the temperature for much longer (though I'd imagine at the cost of taking
longer to reach high temperatures, i.e. they have a very high heat capacity)
and hence provide a more constant output.

Another one is to connect one of these to an hydroelectric plant: any spare
electricity is used to pump water up the dam.

Finally solar power has the advantage that it's plentiful during the day and
especially in the summer which is when the electric demand is highest.

In the end solar power alone won't solve anything, but bundled with other
renewable and with gas/nuclear to provide a steady baseline it should be fine.

~~~
jacabado
In this case they do it, like 10 kilometers from the solar plant is the dam
that created the biggest artificial lake in Europe. The dam is prepared to do
that as it has a smaller dam after it.

The biggest controversy here in Portugal is if we have reached the limit of
util unstable renewable energy, and how much/longer it should subsidized. And
also the need of nucler energy.

------
prs
_Nearly 45 percent of the electricity in Portugal’s grid will come from
renewable sources this year, up from 17 percent just five years ago._

Very impressive makeover, indeed.

------
zemanel
i'm proud of mother nation :)

