David Vance SubstackRead More
You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the timing of Spain hitting its renewable energy milestone only to suffer a subsequent massive energy blackout across Spain and Portugal!!!
On 16th April, Spain celebrated a much-lauded achievement: its national grid ran entirely on renewables—wind, solar, and hydro—for the first time ever during a weekday. Just five days later, solar power peaked at 20,120 MW, covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix.
Yet, a mere 12 days later, a massive power outage has just plunged Spain and Portugal into chaos, disrupting trains, traffic lights, hospitals, manufacturing, and even nuclear power plants. Gulp! With Spain’s grid demand plummeting from 27,500 MW to 15,000 MW, the blackout has affected 50 million people, exposing the fragility of a grid overly dependent on renewables.
Those of us critical of the renewable energy scam have long warned about the intermittency of sources like solar and wind. Put simply renewables lack the dependability of traditional fossil fuel plants, which is crucial for balancing supply and demand. When the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, the grid can falter without adequate backup systems.
Now Spain’s integrated energy grid with Portugal, often described as an “energy island” due to limited interconnections with France, exacerbates this vulnerability!
The irony is palpable. Spain’s renewable triumph was touted as a step toward sustainability, yet it was quickly followed by a crisis that has utterly disrupted daily life and economic activity. The ideological rush to renewables, often driven by political and ideological motives, overlooks practical realities. Grid stability, a cornerstone of modern society, cannot be sacrificed for the sake of environmental goals without viable solutions in place.
Spanish authorities have rushed to attribute the blackout to a “cascading failure” in the grid. Even more hilariously, the Portuguese electricity operator says that the outage was caused by a “rare” atmospheric phenomenon! Haha!
Listen, this Spain-Portugal blackout serves as a cautionary tale: the green fantasy will plunge societies into darkness if not grounded in pragmatic engineering and policy.
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