Both of them are near historical highs for natural gas use.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tablee3.xlsDenmark is almost using the same amount of carbon dioxide as it was generating in 1990 though. Portugal's carbon dioxide emissions are about 150% of what they were in 1990.
It is
fun to note that the "renewables" program includes so much hydroelectricity, especially since Portugal has been experiencing desertification in recent years.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1co2.xlsOf course Denmark and Portugal are real big on
talk but one thing they
never talk about is a plan to phase out fossil fuels. In fact they have no such plan. They're kind of like Maine in this regard.
It is easy - real easy - to talk about "percent" when one is speaking of
tiny economies. "Percent" is actually not a unit of significant energy. A unit of significant energy would be the
exajoule. Between them, Portugal and Denmark account for two exajoules of the 470 exajoules the planet uses. Great leaders, they.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tablee1.xlsThere is actually no evidence that any of these predictions will come true, any more than people's predictions of the immanent return of Jesus have come true.
The total average
power demand for all of Denmark - including the energy that runs its automobiles and heats its homes - is 28,000 MW. The total power for all of Portugal - again, all energy included and not just electricity - is 37,000 MW.
Big deal.