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Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

the-independent.com

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Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#31

Post by jacquesm »

phtrivier wrote: post #27

> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…

And have either a small population or a very low per-person energy budget.

But: 7 isn't the number that matters, what matters is that next year it will be 8 or 9. That would be worth documenting.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#32

Post by mpweiher »

saidnooneever wrote: post #2

i love that in a lot of countries people think these other countries are in the sticks and that they are modern... (ofc depending who u talk to but im sure we all know such a person...) :) a lot of perceptions based on old world views. Love to see these countries do so well on it. There might be many problems to solve still but it provides a degree of self reliance for energy that is really important today for a coun…

Albania: 90% Hydropower, $12150 GDP/person

Bhutan: 99% Hydropower, $ 4700 GDP/person

Nepal: 23% Imported $ 1381 GDP/person

            rest Hydropower  (2/3 of energy: firewood etc.)
Paraguay: 100% Hydropower, $ 7990 GDP/person

Iceland: 99% Hydry/Geo, $90000 GDP/person

Ethiopia: 88% Hydropower, $ 1350 GDP/person

DR Kongo: 98% Hydropower, $ 760 GDP/person , 13% of country has electricity

Not sure how this is applicable (and in many cases: desirable) for countries that do not have significant hydropower potential or maybe want a GDP greater than $760 per person per year.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#33

Post by jacquesm »

locallost wrote: post #6
paulnpace wrote: post #3

[flagged]

The only slaves right now are people praying Iran and the US make a deal to open Hormuz.

Indeed, the cold-turkey effects are already starting to be more visible. Until November traffic here had recovered to > the pre COVID levels, but since then it has dropped considerably, enough to notice, and we're only a few weeks into this.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#34

Post by WinstonSmith84 »

phtrivier wrote: post #27

> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…

fun fact for Paraguay: the Itaipu Dam is one of the largest in the world located between Brazil and Paraguay, where each country gets 50% of the production. But 50% of that production for Paraguay, a country of 7 millions inhabitants, means that it cannot consume that much, so it's essentially reselling that energy to Brazil, a country with 30x more inhabitants. Paraguay only uses about 1/3 of its share (and thus resells 2/3 to Brazil).

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#35

Post by ilitirit »

Probably at least slightly misleading, just reading the names of some of the countries in the list (I am from South Africa).

Just because a country generates 100% of its energy from renewables, it doesn't mean that its enough to power the entire or even majority of the country. Case in point: DRC. I believe only half of the population has access to electricity. It's been a while since I've looked into continental stats, but a quick Google search suggests the situation hasn't changed that much in the last few years.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#36

Post by secondcoming »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #21
gus_massa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geothermal is powered by fission Uranium and other heavy atoms deep in the Earth. Solar is powered by fusion of Hydrogen in the Sun. I'd use the same classification for both.

No, not quite. Geothermal is powered by the accumulated heat stored in rocks from fission Uranium and other heavy atoms deep in the Earth (and other phenomena). Geothermal hotspots do not reheat by fission or otherwise at the same speed that we extract their energy (if they did we'd be in trouble if we weren't extracting it!). As I mentioned in another comment, build a Dyson sphere of solar panels around the Sun and…

How long would it take for the heat to be depleted? Humans have only managed to drill something like 12km into the earth because it gets too hot to go further.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#37

Post by nine_k »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #5

Specifically Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Not to downplay the positive steps that are being taken towards using renewable energy worldwide, but one must point out that all those countries except one are almost exclusively using hydroelectric power, whose availability at such scale is a geographical lottery. As for Iceland, which also relies mostly on hydroe…

Also, many of these countries are tropical or subtropical, with optimal conditions for solar energy year round. Nepal and Bhutan are relatively far from equator, but have many days of unobstructed sunshine.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#38

Post by cenamus »

aqua_coder wrote: post #25

I live in one of those countries, and while renewable electricity helped to cushion the concern for house electricity, most of the logistics (that being the supply chain for basic commodities) are transported by oil (specifically diesel). Which further increases inflation for import dependent countries. Meaning even for those states (except those that don't import oil to move cars in the country) it will regardless c…

Or just trains

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#39

Post by KellyCriterion »

phtrivier wrote: post #27

> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…

wasnt New Zealand also already far up beyond 90% renewable electricity a couple of years ago?
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