What surprised renewable energy in 2017

The year began with a record set by Denmark. In January, a wind turbine in the city of Osterlid produced almost 216,000 kWh of electricity per day - this is enough to provide electricity for a standard house for 20 years ahead.

The Chinese province of Qinghai with a population of 5.6 million people this summer could live a whole week exclusively on "green" energy.

The next world record fell on the development of tidal energy. It was established by the Scottish company Atlantis Resources Limited, which, with the help of just two hydro turbines, was able to supply electricity to 2,000 Scottish houses. A month later in Scotland for the first time received hydrogen from tidal energy, which is planned to be used as an alternative fuel for ferries.

The record for the whole of Europe this fall was provided by hurricanes, which allowed the region to get a quarter of electricity from wind farms. In one of the windiest days, wind generators from 28 EU countries produced 24.6% of the total energy consumption per day - this would be enough to provide 197 million households.

But the world leader in the use of renewable sources can be called Costa Rica. The whole country spent 300 days in 2017 exclusively with the energy of wind, water, sun and other renewable sources, breaking its own record of 2015 - 299 days on renewable energy.