2023
IN NUMBERS

The year of 2023 was an extremely positive year for the national renewable panorama, with the biggest contributors to this result being wind power, which totalled 27.3% (13,116 GWh), followed by hydroelectric power, which accounted for 24.7% (11,867 GWh), which is 83% more than in the previous year (6,483 GWh) and, finally, solar photovoltaics with a corresponding share of 12.1% (5,800 GWh), including both centralised and decentralised production. Hence, it is important to note that electricity production from fossil fuels has fallen by 37% compared to 2022’s production, which is a decisive step towards decarbonizing Portugal’s electricity generation system.

Regarding the national renewable sector, it is worth noting that it reached an all-time high in production, with a share of 70.6 per cent of the total produced in the year under review, corresponding to 32,399 GWh of the 45,893 GWh produced in a year. In Mainland Portugal an index of 0.99 was registered for both wind and hydroelectric producitibility, while the solar producibility index reached 1.01.

At Mainland level, taking advantage of the momentum seen in December 2022 in terms of renewable production, January 2023 was the month with the highest percentage of renewable production, standing at 84.4%. This result translated into a significant number of hours when renewables would be sufficient to supply the national consumption, with 328 non-consecutive hours of 100% renewable generation. During these periods, the average price of the electricity in the wholesale market was €41.42/MWh.

In terms of international trade for the year under review, there was a 10.4 per cent increase in the national import balance (10,218 GWh) compared to the figure recorded in 2022 (9,258 GWh). As mentioned above, the 36% reduction in electricity production via fossil fuels is justified by the slight increase in imports from the Spanish market, as well as by the increase of the renewable electricity generation.

The generation of renewable electricity in 2023 added important gains for the national economy and the environment, as it enabled: (i) the saving of around 626 million euros in fossil fuel imports (natural gas, fuel oil and diesel); (ii) the saving of 750 million euros in CO₂ emission licences; and (iii) the reduction of 9.7 million tonnes of CO₂-eq.