The next challenge is not just clean electricity, but how people use it.
The visit to Smart Energy Lab in Portugal changed how I think about energy transitions. Smart Energy Lab is a Lisbon-based collaborative laboratory that works with industry and academic partners on practical energy transition solutions, including energy management, storage, electric mobility, electrification, and digital tools. Its work focuses on a part of the energy transition that often receives less public attention, how cleaner electricity is managed, used, and adopted in homes, buildings, businesses, and transport systems.
Photo credit: Pavol Duracka / Unsplash
Lisbon’s energy transition is visible in everyday systems, from public transport and buildings to electricity use and urban infrastructure.
Clean electricity is only part of the transition
A key point from this visit was that clean electricity is only one part of the transition, while the harder policy challenge is making energy systems practical, affordable, and useful across households, buildings, transport, and industry. A country can increase renewable electricity generation and still face a larger transition challenge in heating, mobility, building design, household energy use, and industrial demand.
Electricity accounts for about 21% of global final energy consumption, according to the International Energy Agency, with the rest coming from oil products, gas, heat, bioenergy, and other fuels used by households, businesses, transport systems, and industry. That distinction helped me understand why renewable electricity is a major achievement, while the broader transition still depends on demand, infrastructure, behavior, and policy design.
Portugal’s progress depends on policy, not just geography
Portugal is a useful case because it has moved quickly on renewable electricity. In 2023, renewable sources produced 70.7% of mainland Portugal’s electricity, led mainly by wind and hydro, according to APREN – Portuguese Association of Renewable Energy. This is a major achievement, although it does not happen only because Portugal has wind, rivers, and strong solar potential.
Portugal’s geography gives it strong renewable energy advantages, but those resources only become part of a real transition when policy is stable enough to support investment, grid planning, public incentives, electricity pricing, and household or business adoption. The Smart Energy Lab visit showed that Portugal’s next phase will depend on how well the country manages storage, grid reliability, smart buildings, energy efficiency, public trust, and affordability.
The hard part is inside homes and buildings
One of the most important lessons from the visit was how close the energy transition is to everyday life. Many households still do not know how much electricity they use at different times of the day, and smart meters, digital tools, and building energy systems can reduce waste only when people understand them, trust them, and can afford to use them.
Energy technology works best when it is simple enough to use, affordable enough to adopt, and useful enough to change daily decisions. Energy efficiency is central here, because better insulation, windows, shading, lighting, appliances, and building design can reduce demand before more electricity has to be produced, connecting climate policy directly to household costs and comfort.
Photo credit: iStock
Solar panels on urban infrastructure show how Portugal’s energy transition is moving beyond power plants and into buildings, public spaces, and daily electricity use.
What Kenya helps me see differently
The visit also connected to my research interest in Kenya’s geothermal pathway. Portugal’s renewable electricity system relies mainly on wind, hydro, and solar, supported by European Union policy, while Kenya’s pathway is different because geothermal provides steady renewable electricity that can run day and night.
The International Energy Agency reports that Kenya’s electricity generation is nearly 90% renewable, with geothermal providing 47% in 2023. That comparison is useful because Portugal shows how policy stability, geography, and innovation can support renewable electricity, while Kenya shows how a country can use a domestic renewable resource to strengthen energy security and expand electricity access.
Why do both cases point to the same issue?
Portugal and Kenya have different renewable energy pathways, but both show that clean energy systems are shaped by more than generation capacity. Energy projects need public trust, fair costs, clear communication, and visible benefits for communities, especially when infrastructure affects land use, electricity systems, household costs, or local livelihoods.
This is especially important for geothermal development, where local acceptance can shape whether projects move forward smoothly or face resistance. In both Portugal and Kenya, renewable energy policy has to address not only what is technically possible, but also who pays, who benefits, who understands the system, and who has a voice in how projects are developed.
From renewable power to usable systems
The SEPT framework, social, economic, political, and technological, helped me organize this reflection. The social dimension is about trust, awareness, and public acceptance, the economic dimension is about cost and access, the political dimension is about incentives, rules, and long-term policy direction, and the technological dimension is about grids, storage, buildings, and reliability.
The main lesson I took from Smart Energy Lab is that clean energy is not only made at power plants, but it is also shaped in homes, buildings, transport systems, policy choices, and everyday behavior. Portugal’s energy transition is therefore not only a story about renewable electricity, it is also a story about whether the systems around that electricity are practical, affordable, and socially sustainable.
Further reading
International Energy Agency’s Kenya 2024 Energy Policy Review, the International Energy Agency’s energy mix data, APREN’s Renewable Electricity in Review, the European Commission’s REPowerEU framework, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7 on affordable and clean energy.
Suggested citation
Shikuku, Tabitha Florence. “Portugal’s Energy Transition Is Moving Beyond Power Plants.” Tabitha Shikuku, PhD Blog, May 2026, https://tabithashikuku.com
Comment
Comments are welcome. If you are comfortable doing so, please sign your comment with your name or institutional affiliation.
Tags
renewable energy, geothermal energy, energy policy, Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), energy access, energy efficiency
Tabitha Florence Shikuku 
Leave a comment