Energy and Climate

Renewable energy

The "Renewable energy" fact sheet examines the production of energy from renewable sources, its contribution to primary energy consumption and in gross final energy consumption, as well as the contribution of each of the renewable energy sources.
Description: 

Currently, domestic primary energy production in Portugal is almost all based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES).

Renewable energy sources come from natural resources (rivers, wind, biomass, sun, sea waves, earth’s heat), that naturally and regularly renovate themselves, in a sustainable way, even after being used to generate electricity or heat. These natural resources allow the production of hydroelectric, wind, biomass, oceanic and geothermal energy.

The production of energy using renewable sources reduces the need to import fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, to that purpose, making the country less dependent on foreign energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This fact sheet concerns mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores and shall be updated on an annual basis.

Objectives and targets: 
  • The European Union (EU), through the RES Directive concerning the promotion of energy from renewable sources, has set the objective of achieving, in Portugal and by 2020, a 31% share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption and a share of 10% in the transport sector;
  • Within the EU action framework on climate and energy (2030 Energy-Climate), the binding target of at least 27% of renewable energy in total EU energy consumption by 2030 was set in October 2014. This target must be achieved collectively, based on the contribution of the different Member States, which can establish more ambitious national targets;
  • In Portugal, the legislation that partially transposed the RES Directive and the National Action Plan for Renewable Energy for the 2013-2020 period (PNAER 2020) set the target of 31% for the use of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption and 10% for energy consumption in transport, by 2020. They also provide for the incorporation of 59.6% of renewable energy in electricity by 2020;
  • In line with PNAER 2020, the "Green Growth Commitment" sets the objective of "Reinforcing the weight of renewable energy" by setting the target of 31% of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption by 2020 and 40% by 2030;
  • The PNAER 2020 provides a set of intermediate targets for the use of renewable energy in the gross final energy consumption: 22.6% for the years 2011 and 2012; 23.7% for 2013 and 2014; 25.2% in 2015 and 2016; and 27.3% for the years 2017 and 2018.
Progress analysis:

In 2017, 5,034 ktoe (kilo tons of oil equivalent) of renewable energy were produced, of which about 56% came from biomass. Biofuels were responsible for about 6.3% of renewable energy production, and solar thermal was responsible for 1.7%.

Evolution of the minimum RES trajectory in gross final energy consumption

Source: DGEG, 2019

In 2017, the incorporation of RES in gross final energy consumption stood at 28.1%, 0.3 percentage points (pp) below the value recorded in the previous year. Despite the slight decrease, this value surpasses the indicative trajectory foreseen for 2017 (27.3%) and means that Portugal has already reached 90.6% of its target for 2020. Comparing the results obtained by Portugal with the other EU-28 countries, in terms of the overall RES target, in 2017, Portugal recorded the 7th best target, 10.6 pp above the EU-28 average (17.5%), which demonstrates the good performance of Portugal regarding the Renewables Directive and the level of ambition in meeting the 2020 targets.

On the other hand, the incorporation of RES in primary energy consumption was 21.1% in 2017.

Annual production of RES-based electricity, in Portugal

Notas: (p) provisional data  
Source: DGEG, 2019

Regarding the energy produced from RES, there was an increase in 2018, returning to the values ​​of renewable production in 2016, since in 2017, due to the drought that occurred in that year, which led to a 55.7% drop in hydroelectric production.

The production of electricity from RES reached 30,684 GWh (24,309 GWh in 2017) and the incorporation of RES for the purposes of the RES Directive was 53.7% (the real value was 55.3%).

Annual production of RES-based electricity, in Portugal, in 2017

Source: DGEG, 2019

Annual production of RES-based electricity, in Portugal, in 2018

Notas: provisional data
Source: DGEG, 2019

Comparing the annual production of electricity based on RES between 2017 and 2018, it can be observed that in the last year, production increased by 9.8 pp compared to 2017 (45.5% in 2017 to 55.3% in 2018). This difference was mainly due to the hydroelectric component, which increased from 14.3% in 2017 to 24.4% in 2018, in total electricity production.

Analysing the production of electricity by renewable source in 2018, it can be seen that the hydroelectric component  was responsible for 44.2% of the electricity produced, followed by wind production (41.2%), biomass (10.5%), photovoltaic (3.3%) and geothermal (0.7%). Observing the data by region, about 86% of the production took place in the North and Centre of the Country, where the bulk of aerogenerators and most of the water production are located.

Regarding the installed capacity for the production of electricity from RES, at the end of 2018 14,065 MW were achieved in Portugal, which represents an increase of 2.2% over 2017.

Percentage of inclusion of renewables into energy consumption by sector

Source: Eurostat, 2019

At the sectoral level, in 2017, the share of Renewables in the Electricity sector was 54.2% (+0.2 pp compared to 2016), in the Heating and Cooling sector 34.4% (-0.7 pp to 2016) and in the Transport sector 7.9% (+ 0.3 pp compared to 2016). In the case of the Transport sector’s target, there was a significant increase in 2014, since during that year the process of certification of Biofuels began, which allowed the increase in accounting for the purposes of the Renewables Directive.

 

Percentage of inclusion of renewables into the electricity sector, in the EU-28, in 2017

Source: Eurostat, 2019

Compared with other EU countries, Portugal was, in 2017, the fifth EU-28 country with the best performance in the inclusion of renewable energy in the electricity sector (54.2%).

Last update: 
Friday, 10 May, 2019
More information at: 

Directorate-General for Energy and Geology – www.dgeg.pt

Eurostat - Renewable energy statistics