JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Very major power outage in Spain, Portugal, France. Could be due to atmospheric conditions, a cyber attack or did they just run out of power?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14656089/Panic-blackout-Spain-indoors-queues-form-food-petrol-restore-power.html
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Or too much solar/wind?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14655733/How-huge-Spain-blackout-struck-days-grid-ran-entirely-green-power-time.html
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Coming to Australia under Labor Blackout Bowen/Greeens/TEALs
Blackout Chaos
Could renewable energy be to blame for huge Spain blackout? How outage struck days after country’s grid ran entirely on green power for the first time
The shocking blackouts, which struck around 12.35pm CEST, have impacted millions of people with almost all of Spain and Portugal affected as the Iberian Peninsula’s power grid was cut off from the wider European grid (ENTSO-E). Parts of France, Andorra, Belgium and the Netherlands also suffered outages, according to the most recent reports.
Analysts have suggested that the Spanish grid operator’s reliance on renewable energy sources to supply the majority of the nation’s electricity could have led to the blackout.
Traditional generators, like coal and hydroelectric plants or gas turbines, are connected directly to the grid via heavy spinning machines. When turned on, these massive machines are in constant motion and the inertia created by their weight and momentum acts like a shock absorber, helping to insulate the grid against a sudden disturbance – for example, in the event of a transmission failure.
Solar and wind power do not provide the natural inertia generated by these so-called ‘spinning machines’, leaving the grid more vulnerable to disruptions and subsequent oscillations in the electrical frequency.
An increase in reliance on solar, wind and other ‘low inertia’ power sources is the subject of concern for the European power network.
A report by ENTSO-E in 2022 warned that ‘a reduction in total system inertia significantly affects the capability to provide instantly matching balancing power’ when a disruption occurs.
and
FREQUENCY STABILITY IN LONG-TERM SCENARIOS AND RELEVANT REQUIREMENTS
3 December 2021
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6 Days After Celebrating ‘100% Renewable Power’, Spain Blames “Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon” For Nation’s Largest Blackout In History
Over-Reliance On Renewables Behind Catastrophic Blackouts in Spain
Excess solar resulted in too little “inertia,” making the whole system vulnerable
This wasn’t just a Spanish blackout. It shook the entire European grid.
None of this should have been a surprise. The underlying physics had been understood for years, and the specific vulnerabilities had been spelled out repeatedly in technical warnings that policymakers ignored.
As countries replaced heavy, spinning plants with lightweight, inverter-based generation, the grid became faster, lighter, and far more sensitive to disruptions. That basic physical reality was spelled out in public warnings as far back as 2017.
Although political leaders promised that renewable energy would provide stable, affordable power, in practice, Spain grew more reliant on the remaining nuclear and natural gas plants to sustain inertia — even as the government pushes them to close.
Despite all these warnings, political and regulatory energy in Europe remained focused on accelerating renewable deployment, not upgrading the grid’s basic stability. In Spain, solar generation continued to climb rapidly through 2023 and early 2024.
Coal plants closed. Nuclear units retired.
On many spring days by 2025, Spain’s midday solar generation exceeded its total afternoon demand, leading to frequent negative electricity prices.
The system was being pushed to the limit.
And today, at 12:35 pm, it broke.
Spain’s blackout wasn’t just a technical failure. It was a political and strategic failure.
Unless Spain rapidly invests in synthetic inertia, maintains and expands its nuclear fleet, or adds some other new form of heavy rotating generation, the risk of future blackouts will only grow worse.
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Update (1126ET): Portugal’s grid operator, REN (Rede Eléctrica Nacional), claimed that the massive power outage affecting Portugal and Spain was sparked by a “rare atmospheric phenomenon,” specifically “extreme temperature variations” in the Spanish electricity grid.
British media outlet LBC News provided more color on REN’s claim:
Portugal’s grid operator, REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional) claimed interruptions to the country’s power supply were the result of a “fault in the Spanish electricity grid”.
They said this was related to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon”, namely “extreme temperature variations”.
Due to these variations in the interior or Spain, there were “anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), which is a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration'”.
“These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
Spain has yet to respond to the claim.
REN added that normalisation of the system could take up to a week.
Due to these variations in the interior or Spain, there were “anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), which is a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration'”.
Before the outage hit, Spain was running its grid with very little dispatchable spinning generation, and therefore no much inertia.
Solar PV/thermal + wind: ~78%
Nuclear: 11.5%
Co-generation: 5%
Gas-fired: ~3% (less than 1GW)
Snapshot at 12.30pm local time (outage was 12.35pm)
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This is such a fascinating graph. A frequency drop of 0.15Hz was enough to take down Spain and Portugal.
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Are our skies being deliberately tampered with to slow down warming?
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/what-are-they-doing-to-our-skies-part-one-2/
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Shame on all of us sceptics who are apparently intimidating journalists about climate change
https://dailysceptic.org/todays-update/
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They Lied To Us About Iraq’s WMDs, But They’ve Taken It To Another Level With Ukraine’; Hitchens
by Tyler Durden Tuesday, Apr 29, 2025
Authored by Peter Hitchens via The Daily Mail,
In my trade I have long grown used to the way governments lie and get others to lie for them.
It is what they do.
But I have seldom seen such a cloud of lies as we face now.
Hardly anyone in this country knows the truth about Ukraine.
There has been nothing like it since we were all lied to about the Iraq invasion, with bilge about fictional ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’. The liars were caught out.
And they learned from it. They learned to lie more skillfully.
We have never had a debate about the Ukraine crisis which started from the beginning. Did anyone in power ever tell you truthfully how, when or why this war began? No. Did anyone in power explain why Britain, crime blighted, decrepit, rubbish-strewn, rat-infested, broke Britain, had to get involved in it? Never.
You have just been fed propaganda rubbish about ‘democracy’, freedom and an invented Russian menace. Here are some of the lies you have repeatedly been told.
The war, they say, was not provoked. Seldom in history has a war been more provoked.
I am always accused, when I say that, of making excuses for Putin. I am not.
I think he was stupid as well as wrong to be provoked. Wise men ignore provocations. But to claim he was not provoked is just to lie.
And then there is the claim that this is about democracy and freedom. It isn’t. The more the West claims to care for these things, the less it does to help them.
Some examples:
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