Going green has never been more popular and Portugal is leading the way with its renewable energy efforts.  After running for an impressive 107 hours without using even a single bit of fossil fuel, Portugal hit a major milestone in its goal to become entirely sufficient on renewable energy sources.

Starting at 6:45a on May 7th and lasting until 5:45p on Wednesday, May 11th, the country utilized solely sustainable electricity.

In the past, Portugal relied mainly on coal and natural gas, but lately has been pushing for increased use of technologies in solar, wind and hydro-powered energies.  

“Portugal has been investing considerably in renewables, particularly in electricity, since this will be the main final energy within the next decades with the transition from fossil fuels in road transportation to electric vehicles,” said Francisco Ferreira, President of Portuguese sustainability NGO Zero.

“However, this was the first time that it happened for such a long period, due to particular meteorological conditions and the great management performance of the electricity network.”

Solar energy in particular is expected to excel in Portugal, as the region receives the most sunshine in all of Europe.  And due to an already better-than-expected level of sustained renewable energy sustained during the Spring, Portugal hopes to do even better during the Summer months.

Back in 2009 an EU directive set a goal for Portugal to comprise at least 31 percent of its energy mix of renewable energy sources by 2020.  But at this rate, only Austria, LAtvia, Finland and Sweden are on track to have higher shares than Portugal, with the rest of the UK having a goal of 15 percent.