Portugal ran entirely on renewable energy for 4 consecutive days last week

[FBaggins]

3. Not quite

There have been large populations that are effectively 100% renewable at times for decades. Anywhere close to a large hydro plant for instance.

What has been (correctly) doubted is that variable renewables (i.e., solar and wind) could do the job absent dramatic overbuilding combined with massive amounts of storage capacity. You can see why by comparing two of the graphics on that site to see how much solar was involved in this latest achievement compared to how much of a contribution solar plays overall in Portugal.

Nothing in this story really changes that, because the overwhelming majority of Portugal's renewable generation comes from hydro and biomass/waste - which are baseload generation plants (and deforestation in Portugal at least raises the question re: whether that can truly be considered "renewable&quot . Nor is it really the same thing to say that variable renewables provided 100% of demand for a brief period of time... since the doubt has never been whether or not you can get electricity from those sources... merely whether you can power a modern society with them.