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Comment by ardit33 | Hacker News Reader

Albania has been run on 100% renewable energy (hydric) for 50+ years now..... the only thermo-central power plant built, has been uncompleted and in-functional for decades due to the high cost of fuel.

Usually smaller countries that have the resources can pull it off. (hydric in the case of Albania, as it is 70% mountainous and has a lot of rivers crossing it).

The downside is that is very much rainfall dependent. There are years where it could actually export energy, and there are years that it has to import it to meet demand.

https://i.redd.it/ul78e5rqdvt21.png

For more in Europe: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/bg6hnz/electricity_...

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Norway have produced on average more energy than we consume the last 70years, but we can not call ourself green anymore because the CO2/energy certificates are bought by Facebook, Apple and other large energy consumers in Europe that want their green stamp. The problem is that Norwegians still feel they are green because we produce so much green energy, and don’t understand (?) the link with money. Because of that Facebook and Apple (++) get these certificates super cheap.

Yep, the certificate trade is a trick to sell green energy twice.

That's fascinating.

Though it's not quite 100% renewable energy unless the energy being imported is also renewable.

True, but If it is balanced with the exports, then it is still zero overall. (eg. if your renewable exports are substituting dirty energy somewhere else).

I don't know what the current ratio is, but I do know that Rainfall directly affects the GDP of the country by almost +/- 1%.

Yes, and no.

Yes: the net impact on the environment is likely to be equivalent if imports and exports balance.

No: a major criticism of renewable energy is that it is less reliable. Achieving 100% is much more impressive without a handicap.

I'm still impressed though.

With their mountains and rivers they could probably use hydro as backup for solar and wind generation and achieve 100% but with ability to buy electricity because of the connected grid unlikely to happen

Ecuador too

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