The world is struggling with pollution, climate change and global warming. Renewable energy has been around from quite some time but are countries and their heads seriously giving heed to the hidden power of this form of energy? Yes big nations are investing in huge projects related to renewable energy but are they reaping any benefits or are these projects nearing any fruit? The news is, it is not the big and stronger nations that are taking the lead but smaller ones which are not only adopting renewable technologies but are also doing substantial work with it. We name 5 of these countries in this article.

Costa Rica

This beautiful little country known for its pristine beaches and lush jungles has gone 100% green since the start of 2015. One of its renewable efforts involves utilizing its own plentiful rainfall to power their growing hydroelectric infrastructure. You will be amazed to know that this small country has the second best electric infrastructure in Latin America. Additionally it is also generating power from geothermal sources, wind, biomass and solar energy products. This shift towards renewable energy will surely help the country preserve its natural resources and environment.

Scotland

Just a month of December 2014 was enough for Scotland to set a new personal record for itself. The country provided almost 1300 MWh to its national grid using only wind power. If you cannot guess how huge this is, then you should know that this amount of energy can supply almost 4 million homes with electricity. Scotland is now using wind power to produce and supply almost 100% of the country’s household needs, but it has not stopped there. During the summer months, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness harvested enough solar energy to power 100% or more of the electric demands for the average home.

Denmark

Denmark is the leading country when it comes to wind power. They have had wind turbines since the 1970s and have always utilized wind power. In the year 2014, Denmark set a world record for windmill production. It will amaze you that the country now enjoys around 40% of its total electricity from this one clean energy source alone. The good thing is, the story doesn’t end here and the country is on its way to meeting its self-set goal of being 50% powered by renewable energy by 2020 and 100% by 2050. This will make it the first advanced country to make itself 100% renewable energy reliant.

Sweden

Sweden’s approach of doubling down on green with a limited-coal approach has been so successful that the International Energy Agency has commended the country for its new energy policies. The country is also developing advanced biomass systems and has been quite successful so far because by 2010, it was already producing more energy from biomass than from fossil fuels.

Finland

Wind is the way to go for this country. They have started concentrating on wind energy which has dramatically reduced the country’s green-house gas emissions. Though it is not yet at par with Sweden and Denmark, still it has found the right path and moving steadily on it. By 2012, the country was already producing enough energy to cover almost 34.3% of the energy needs with a hope to increase it to 40% by 2020.

When we have all these beacons of hope amongst us, we may feel a little positive about the future, but the thing is drastic change will only occur when the bigger countries start adopting the renewable way.

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Author: Technology and Beyond