Earth Hour and Strike balance
Thanks to the wonderful information from Spanish electrical distribution data it is possible to make an evaluation of Earth Hour. At 21:00 29000 MWh were used whereas it was 31500 last saturday and 31400 the previous one a 8% less. It is more than my expectations because I checked the lights around me and I did not notice any change with respect to a normal day. Even ourself started late as we did not notice the hour, after that we enjoyed 45 lovely minutes in candlelight. And I have to confess there was some light outside, so it was not so difficult.
To compare it with another figure, there was a general strike on Thursday, in this case the consumption dropped more or less from 33000 MWh to 27000 MWh in the morning hours, a 18%. The three last figures in the post show the day consumption evolution for those three days, Earth hour (saturday), strike (Thursday) and before strike (Wednesday). Four basic conclusions:
- Classical ways of protest are still stronger than “new” ones, at least in this case and for the moment.
- Earth hour had an impact and enough followers to reduce the total consumption by 8% (it was even mentioned in the TV at 22:00, I got quite happy about that).
- We have margin and possibilities to reduce energy demand without returning to the caves. The best renewable is the efficiency and the best efficiency is to consume less.
- We, Consumers, are more powerful than we think, but we need coordination to show our strength
Earth hour day energy consumption and generation in Spain (source https://demanda.ree.es/demanda.html)
Strike day energy consumption and generation in Spain (source https://demanda.ree.es/demanda.html)
Day before strike energy consumption and generation in Spain (source https://demanda.ree.es/demanda.html)
Amateur Climate Change 