Renewable Portugal

By Sebastian Clayton - December 2, 2008 Europe's largest onshore wind farm plugged itself into the national grid in Portugal today to provide power for up to one million people in the northern part of the country. With over 100 windmills providing power, this launch continues to make Portugal a European leader of renewable energy. "Europe's largest onshore wind farm is now fully operational," a spokeswoman for France's EDF Energies Nouvelles, which co-owns the farm, announced this morning. With another smaller wind farm coming soon, the combined output will be 650 gigawatt hours per year which is well over 1% of the national annual consumption. In addition to the wind farms, Portugal also has one of the largest solar power farms under construction, which when completed in two years, will be twice the size of any other in the world. As previously reported on Tonic News, Portugal also recently launched the world's first commercial wave power plant. With all these renewable energy sources coming online for Portugal, the small country is making huge waves in alternative energy and leading the way for other countries to follow. Will other countries follow suit?