According to an article by Elizabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times, Portugal has dramatically ramped up their renewable energy production over the past five years.  While 17% of the nation’s electricity was produced from renewable sources in 2005, nearly 45% of the supply will come from renewable sources this year.  The article highlights the political and grid structure changes that were necessary to achieve such a quick and grandiose transition, and draws parallels to the opportunities and challenges of adopting similar standards in the United States.  While the difficulties and challenges of widespread renewable energy production across the available sectors (solar, wind, hydro, biogas from AD) remain, it is encouraging to read about such success.  The piece also mentions a report from I.H.S. Emerging Energy Research that projects Ireland, Denmark, and Britain to produce at least 40% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.