Tag: Spain

On El Hierro Island, At Least They Kept The Diesel Backup

On El Hierro Island in Spain, they set out to build an electricity system powered only by wind, with backup from a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant. The relevant statistics for El Hierro are: average electricity demand: 5 MW; nameplate capacity of the wind turbines: 11.5 MW (i.e., 2.3x “overbuild” compared to average usage); storage capacity of the pumped storage system: 70 MWh (i.e., 14 hours of average usage).

A panoramic view of El Hierro Island, showcasing wind turbines on a mountainous landscape with a coastal view. A power facility is visible in the foreground, with a pool of water and a pipeline leading to the structure.
AI generated by Meta

From The Manhattan Contrarian

By Francis Menton

On El Hierro Island in Spain, they set out to build an electricity system powered only by wind, with backup from a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant. The relevant statistics for El Hierro are: average electricity demand: 5 MW; nameplate capacity of the wind turbines: 11.5 MW (i.e., 2.3x “overbuild” compared to average usage); storage capacity of the pumped storage system: 70 MWh (i.e., 14 hours of average usage). The operator of the facility has provided eight years of operating data for the system. I reported on the results in my last post on October 23. In summary, the wind/storage system provided 56% of the island’s electricity use in the best year, and only 35% in the worst year.

During these years, the remainder of the island’s electricity — ranging from 44% in the “best” year for the wind system to 65% in the worst year — has been provided by a diesel generator. The wind/storage system has fallen far short of its stated goal of supplying all the electricity for the island. But at least they have kept the diesel generator around. The diesel generator has sufficient capacity to meet the full electricity demand of the island, even when the wind is calm and the storage reservoir is empty. As a result, the system operators have been able to continue to provide electricity to the residents despite the total failure of the wind/storage system to meet its promises.

But here’s some important information you may not be aware of. Here in the U.S., during the Obama and Biden administrations, the regulators took the opposite approach. Rather than proceeding like El Hierro, and building out a wind/storage (or a wind/solar/storage) system first, and only then reducing fossil-fuel backup capacity as that became feasible, they instead ordered that the fossil-fuel capacity must be shut on a fixed schedule without any knowledge or assurance that there would be sufficient wind, solar, storage, or anything else to replace it.

And this was for the whole country, not just for a small island of 11,000 people. All 340+ million Americans were to be enlisted as involuntary guinea pigs in this wild adventure.

Nor is this ancient history. After the Supreme Court’s 2022 West Virginia v. EPA decision struck down a prior Obama administration effort to force the closure of fossil fuel power plants, the Biden administration came back with a new version in April 2024. This Biden EPA Rule was finalized on April 24, 2024 with the incredibly verbose title “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.” I covered the issuance of this Rule in a post on May 1, 2024 titled “The Biden Administration Ever More Delusional On Energy.”

A commenter on that post suggested that because the title of the Rule was so long I should shorten it into an acronym using just the initials, NSPSFGGEFNMARFFFEGUEGFGGFEFFFEGUAROTACER.

From the Executive Summary of the NSPSFGGEFN. . . (you can fill in the rest):

In 2009, the EPA concluded that GHG emissions endanger our nation’s public health and welfare. Since that time, the evidence of the harms posed by GHG emissions has only grown, and Americans experience the destructive and worsening effects of climate change every day. Fossil fuel-fired EGUs are the nation’s largest stationary source of GHG emissions, representing 25 percent of the United States’ total GHG emissions in 2021. At the same time, a range of cost-effective technologies and approaches to reduce GHG emissions from these sources is available to the power sector—including carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS), co-firing with less GHG-intensive fuels, and more efficient generation. Congress has also acted to provide funding and other incentives to encourage the deployment of various technologies, including CCS, to achieve reductions in GHG emissions from the power sector.

The full Rule is over 1000 pages long, so it impossible to describe all its details in a short blog post. But the gist of the Rule was to set standards for power plants for maximum emissions of “greenhouse gases” in units of pounds of CO2 per MWh of energy output. The standards were such that over time no fossil fuel power plant could comply, except perhaps if it could somehow capture most of its CO2 emissions in a process called “Carbon Capture and Storage,” or CCS. You can see the Rule’s introduction there describing CCS as a “cost-effective technology.” But was it then? Or is it now?

The problem with CCS is that after many, many attempts there has never been a fully successful demonstration that it is cost-effective and functional at scale. Multiple well-informed commenters on the 2024 Rule provided detailed information on that subject, all of which the Biden EPA chose to ignore when it adopted the Rule. For example, here is a quote from the comment submitted by the Attorney General of Ohio in August 2023:

A study of 263 carbon-capture-and-sequestration projects undertaken between 1995 and 2018 found that the majority failed and 78% of the largest projects were cancelled or put on hold.  After the study was published in May 2021, the only other coal plant with a carbon-capture-and-sequestration attachment in the world, Petra Nova, shuttered after facing 367 outages in its three years of operation. . . . [T]his [SaskPower] facility is the world’s only [remaining] operating commercial carbon capture facility at a coal-fired power plant.   And it has never achieved its maximum capacity.  It also battled significant technical issues throughout 2021—to the point that the plant idled the equipment for weeks at a time.  As a result, the plant achieved less than 37% carbon capture that year despite having an official target of 90% . . . .

The SaskPower facility discussed in that comment is a small plant (115 MW) and has continued to face significant technical challenges since the time of the comment in 2023. Here is a report on that facility from December 2025 at something called the International CCS Knowledge Center. Excerpt:

The BD3 CCS Facility began operation in the fall of 2014 and, in its early days, focused on addressing design deficiencies. Many of the most valuable lessons came from unforeseen operational challenges that surfaced over time, which were addressed through hands-on experience. As the first facility of its kind to implement CCS technologies to significantly reduce emissions from a coal-fired power plant, it faced numerous engineering challenges that needed to be resolved to achieve the operational success it enjoys today.

The report is all about the “design deficiencies” and alleged “solutions” that have supposedly been implemented in the 13 years of operation. Missing from the report is any information on the wholesale cost of power from the facility, and how that might compare to the cost of wholesale power from the plant if they just disconnected the CCS part and let it run that way.

Meanwhile, I asked Google Gemini if any new CCS facilities at large power plants have gone into operation in the three years (2024-2026) since the comments on the Biden-era Rule were submitted. The answer:

No large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems attached to major fossil-fuel power plants have gone into commercial operation and successfully started up between 2024 and 2026.

I invite any reader to come up with an example of such a facility that has started up and operated successfully. From my research, I don’t think that it exists.

In the absence of a commercially reasonable CCS technology that can be attached to essentially all fossil fuel power plants, the Biden era NSPSFGG. . . Rule functionally amounted to an order to shut down the existing mostly-fossil-fuel based electricity system in this country, without any proven system capable of replacing it in the time period required. We would put up huge numbers of wind and solar generators (with massive taxpayer subsidies to support them), and no idea whether the system would work when the fossil fuel plants shut down. If that didn’t work, we could all just freeze.

Actually, as time goes on it is becoming more and more clear what the limits are for intermittent wind and solar electricity generation for powering a big electrical grid. Germany is the poster child for the wind/solar buildout. Germany’s total consumption of electricity for 2023 (latest year I can find) was 476 TWh, which would make its average usage about 54 GW. According to Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the country’s nameplate capacity of wind and solar generation facilities as of early 2026 was 210 GW. That’s an “overbuild” of almost 4x. Meanwhile, Germany has almost zero meaningful amount of energy storage to back up the wind and solar generation and compensate for intermittency. And the percent of electricity consumption from wind and solar that Germany was able to achieve in 2025 with that 4x capacity overbuild was (drumroll!!!!!) about 44%, according to a Report from Yale Environment 360.

You can buy more and more of these things, but they just produce more and more electricity that you don’t need (and must discard) on a breezy summer day, and nothing on a cold winter night when you need it the most. This is not really very complicated. When are they finally going to figure it out?

No Spanish-Style Uprooting: Italy’s Farmland Ban Keeps Solar Panels Among the Olives

In Italy, the situation with solar panels and olive trees differs markedly from Spain’s high-profile conflicts (like the mass uprooting in Andalusia). Italy has seen less widespread replacement or clear-cutting of productive olive groves for utility-scale solar farms, largely due to stricter regulations and a stronger push toward integration rather than outright replacement.

In Italy, the situation with solar panels and olive trees differs markedly from Spain’s high- profile conflicts (like the mass uprooting in Andalusia). Italy has seen less widespread replacement or clear- cutting of productive olive groves for utility- scale solar farms, largely due to stricter regulations and a stronger push toward integration rather than outright replacement.

In Italy, solar panels are not replacing olive trees on anywhere near the scale seen in Spain.

Thanks to strict national rules introduced in 2024 (and still largely in force as of March 2026), outright clear-cutting of productive olive groves for traditional ground-mounted solar farms is effectively banned on agricultural land.

The Agriculture Decree prohibits large-scale PV on farmland unless panels are elevated (at least 2.1 metres high) to allow continued farming, grazing or olive production underneath — forcing developers into agrivoltaics (or “agri-PV”).

A 2025 court ruling partially repealed some related decrees, but the core protection remains and has pushed the industry toward dual-use systems.

Differences and Protections in Italy

  • Ban on Utility-Scale Solar on Agricultural Land — In late 2024/early 2025, Italy’s government (under PM Giorgia Meloni) introduced an emergency decree banning ground-mounted solar panels on prime farmland to protect food security, sovereignty, and agricultural heritage. This was supported by powerful farmers’ unions like Coldiretti, who argued that large solar projects threatened crops (including olives, vines, and grains). The ban favors elevated or agri-solar setups (at least 2.1 meters high) that allow farming underneath, or rooftop/derelict land installations. Some regions (e.g., parts of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna) have seen local protests and moratoriums against “solar sprawl” on fertile fields.
  • Result: Developers have pivoted heavily to agrivoltaics (or “agri-PV”) to bypass restrictions. Italy is on track for record solar installations overall, but much of the growth is in dual-use systems rather than full land conversion.

Cases Involving Olive Groves

Italy’s olive heartlands (Puglia, Sicily, Calabria, Lazio) face some tensions, but conflicts are smaller-scale and often resolved via agrivoltaics or legal challenges:

  • Puglia (Apulia) — Home to iconic ancient olive groves (many hit hard by Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, which has killed millions of trees since ~2013). Some projects involve uprooting trees for PV, e.g.:
    • In Bitonto (near Bari), protests erupted over plans to remove thousands of olive trees (e.g., ~30,000 for an 86 MW agrivoltaic plant by PV Verde Srl, plus transplants for others). Farmers’ group CIA Puglia highlighted “photovoltaic madness” risking 50,000+ trees in the area.
    • Other cases saw ~2,000 centuries-old trees uprooted for a park, with appeals claiming replanting promises weren’t met.
    • However, many Puglia projects now combine PV with olive revival or intercropping to regenerate abandoned/Xylella-affected land.
  • Sicily — Projects like Engie’s Mazara del Vallo agri-solar park (inaugurated 2023, one of Italy’s largest) integrate panels with local crops (including olives in some designs). It’s fed into the grid via corporate deals (e.g., with Amazon) but faced criticism over “land colonization.”
  • Lazio and Other Areas — Developers sometimes discover olive trees on purchased land and shift to olive oil production alongside PV (e.g., one company harvested organic oil from 1,130 trees on a former solar site). Research from Politecnico di Torino and others models successful PV-olive integration in southern Italy.

Agrivoltaics (“Olivoltaics”) in Italy

Italy leads in Mediterranean agrivoltaics research and deployment for olives:

  • Studies (e.g., Italian-Spanish teams) show bifacial panels in olive groves boost overall land productivity (LER >1), with shade protecting trees from heat/drought while olives cool panels.
  • Projects in Puglia (e.g., Borgo Monteruga) use CFD modeling to optimize microclimates for better olive yields.
  • Potential: Deploying on just a fraction of olive land could add significant PV capacity, cut CO₂, and create jobs without major tree loss.

Unlike Spain’s aggressive approvals leading to tens/hundreds of thousands of trees at risk, Italy’s approach emphasizes protection of farmland and dual-use solutions.

Protests exist (especially in Puglia against specific uprootings), but they’re more localized, often tied to Xylella recovery or landscape concerns. The ban and incentives for agrivoltaics mean solar expansion rarely means full replacement of healthy olive groves — instead, it’s increasingly “panels among the trees” to harmonize energy and agriculture.

If agrivoltaics scales further (as research supports), Italy could avoid Spain- style clashes while meeting renewable targets.

The debate continues, with farmers pushing back against “savage colonization” in some spots, but regulations tilt toward coexistence over conflict.

Green Energy’s Dark Side: Spanish Olive Trees Replaced by Solar Arrays

Spain, as the world’s top olive oil producer, has vast olive groves, especially in provinces like Jaén and Córdoba. The sunny climate (nearly 3,000 hours of sunshine annually) makes it ideal for solar energy, and the government has pushed aggressive renewable targets, including massive ground- mounted photovoltaic projects.

In Spain, especially in Andalusia, the world’s leading olive oil region, there’s an ongoing controversy where large- scale solar farms are being installed on agricultural land.

Large- scale solar farms continue to be built on prime olive grove land, often involving the uprooting of centuries- old trees. The sunny climate that makes the area perfect for olives also drives aggressive renewable energy targets, leading to a direct clash between green energy goals and agricultural/cultural heritage.

The Andalusian regional government has approved 25 mega-solar plants across roughly 5,500 hectares of olive groves, mainly in Jaén and Córdoba provinces.

Spain, as the world’s top olive oil producer, has vast olive groves, especially in provinces like Jaén and Córdoba. The sunny climate (nearly 3,000 hours of sunshine annually) makes it ideal for solar energy, and the government has pushed aggressive renewable targets, including massive ground- mounted photovoltaic projects.

In areas like Lopera (Jaén), projects by companies such as Greenalia have already removed thousands of olive trees, with some reports citing ancient or centuries- old specimens.

Campaigners and farmers have warned that planned solar parks could lead to the loss of tens to hundreds of thousands of trees overall, estimates vary widely (e.g., nearly 100,000 for certain clusters of projects, or even claims of half a million across broader initiatives), though official figures are often lower (around 13,000 in some cases).

Local olive farmers face expropriation under “public interest” declarations by the regional Junta de Andalucía government, sometimes using older laws.

This has sparked protests, criminal complaints against developers, and calls for moratoriums, as it threatens livelihoods, traditional rural life, and cultural heritage.

Farmers describe it as destructive to their way of life, with one calling tree removal for panels a “crime.”

Spain’s push for renewables has seen fertile land repurposed, leading to debates about balancing clean energy with food security and biodiversity.

Critics highlight irony in removing carbon-sequestering trees and habitats (affecting bees, insects, etc.) to save the planet.

Latest Developments

The debate is still going on.

March 3, 2026, international coverage highlighted the ongoing struggle in southern Spain between traditional olive harvests and mega solar parks but no resolution in sight.

Agrivoltaics (“Olivoltaics”)

Agrivoltaics, also called “agrivoltaic systems” or “dual-use solar”, integrates solar photovoltaic (PV) panels with agricultural production on the same land.

Panels are typically elevated (e.g., 2–4 meters high) and spaced to allow farming, grazing, or crop growth underneath or between rows. This approach resolves land-use conflicts between food production and renewable energy, especially relevant in sunny regions like Spain’s olive groves, also called “olivoltaics”.

Research from Spanish institutions (University of Córdoba, Jaén, and others) strongly supports integrating solar panels with olive groves instead of full replacement.

Simulations show dual- use on intensive/super-intensive groves could generate significant electricity (e.g., ~15 TWh/year from just 80,000 hectares) with minimal crop impact.

Elevated panels between rows provide shade and wind protection for trees (potentially increasing olive yields in hot climates).

Olive evapotranspiration cools the panels, boosting their efficiency.

This approach could harmonize renewable energy and olive production, but much of the current rollout involves full replacement rather than integration, fueling the tensions.

Macron says Spain’s mega-blackout was due to the country’s reliance on renewable energy

French President Emmanuel Macron recently stated that Spain’s major blackout in April 2025 was caused by the country’s over-reliance on renewable energy.

Note that Spain’s actual renewable share is around 60% (from solar, wind, hydro, etc.), with nuclear at about 20%, though periods of very high renewable output (even approaching or hitting 100% momentarily) have occurred.

A man in a black suit and tie holds a piece of paper while speaking, with a serious expression and looking directly at the camera.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently stated that Spain’s major blackout in April 2025 was caused by the country’s over-reliance on renewable energy.

Note that Spain’s actual renewable share is around 60% (from solar, wind, hydro, etc.), with nuclear at about 20%, though periods of very high renewable output (even approaching or hitting 100% momentarily) have occurred.

The Spanish government reportedly denied renewables as the cause, instead pointing to issues like solar farms switching off or other technical factors.

The blackout lasted up to 10-12 hours in most affected areas, causing widespread disruptions including halted trains, trapped elevators, and at least five reported deaths from related incidents like fires or generator failures.

Graphic depicting 'Spanish Blackouts 2025' with a lightbulb crossed out and a map of Spain highlighted.

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A cartoon scene featuring four animated characters with expressive faces, one speaking in a speech bubble saying, 'WE NEED AN ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY MASTERPLAN,' and another character exclaiming 'GOSH!!' in a shock bubble against a black background.

Emmanuel Macron has blamed Spain‘s mega-blackout on the country’s overreliance on renewable energy.

The French President said the debate over the cause of the enormous power outage, which plunged Spain into darkness in April leaving five dead and millions without power, was ‘a false one’. Daily Mail Online has the story.

The disruption, which also impacted Portugal and southwestern France, left areas in total darkness for nearly a day, cutting internet and telephone connection, while hampering transport. 

School pupils and workers were sent home for the day, but many others were stuck in lifts or stranded on trains in isolated rural areas. 

Madrid’s socialist government did not provide an explanation in the immediate aftermath of the outage, instead calling for patience while it was investigated. 

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly rejected criticism of the country’s heavy reliance on renewable energy sources. 

And Spain’s electric grid operator Red Eléctrica de España pinned it on a significant and unprecedented drop in power generation. 

Mr Macron has now hit out at Spain’s reliance on renewable energies, claiming ‘no system can withstand such dependence’. 

He said: ‘The debate about Spain is a false one. Its problem is that it has a 100 per cent renewable energy model that its own domestic grid cannot support’

The blackout had nothing to do with the interconnections, he said, ‘but with the fact that no system, at least with current technology, can withstand such dependence on renewable energies.’

‘Stability in the energy mix is ​​needed, because otherwise, shocks that are too big occur. But it’s not just about interconnections. Networks are needed,’ he added.

Experts have also claimed that the nation’s heavy reliance on solar power leaves it vulnerable to future blackouts because of how renewable generators work compared with traditional power plants.

It has also prompted warnings about Ed Miliband’s race to net zero in the UK. 

Read the full story here.

A man in a black suit and tie stands with an animated expression, gesturing with his hands in a questioning manner against a light-colored background.

Difficult times for hydrogen

In recent months, several large hydrogen projects in Europe have been cancelled, postponed or greatly downsized, mainly due to high costs, uncertain demand and delayed subsidies.

A large metallic aircraft-like object is engulfed in flames, creating a massive plume of smoke as people flee from the scene.

From KlimaNachrichten

Colorful explosion of smoke and particles against a dark background.

In recent months, several large hydrogen projects in Europe have been cancelled, postponed or greatly downsized, mainly due to high costs, uncertain demand and delayed subsidies.
This does not only apply to Germany, where it seems almost hopeless to produce even more expensive hydrogen from expensive electricity. Other countries are also affected.

Here are some of the most important cases:
 

Germany
 LEAG (Lausitz Energie): The planned green energy centre on the site of decommissioned coal-fired power plants in eastern Germany was postponed indefinitely in June 2025

ArcelorMittal: The conversion of two steel mills to green hydrogen (€2.5 billion project) has been paused despite €1.3 billion in subsidies

Statkraft: In May 2025, the Norwegian energy company stopped the development of new green hydrogen projects, including projects in Germany. Existing projects such as those in Emden will only be pursued with external investors

Spain
 Iberdrola: Reduced its hydrogen targets by almost two-thirds in March 2024 – from 350,000 to 120,000 Tonnes by 2030

Repsol: In February 2025, lowered the target for electrolysis capacity by up to 63% by 2030

Norway
 Shell: Scrapped plans for a low-carbon hydrogen plant on the West Coast in September 2024

Equinor: Canceled a similar project as well

Finland
 Neste: Withdrew from a renewable hydrogen production project in Porvoo in October 2024.

It’s Too Hot, Mum!!!

The Med is now too hot for summer holidays, says the laughable Daily Telegraph!

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The Med is now too hot for summer holidays, says the laughable Daily Telegraph!

Costa Dorada

According to the Telegraph’s Senior Travel Writer:

Most of us like a bit of sunshine on our holidays, but when does hot become “too hot”? If ambulances are on standby at resorts, aircon-fuelled “climate shelters” are being set up and the elderly are being advised to stay indoors, you could argue that the answer is: now.

A heatwave has hit large swaths of Europe including France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In Spain, a June temperature record of 46C was set on Saturday afternoon in El Granado, Andalucia, while France has issued a heat warning in 84 of the country’s 96 mainland departments.

As a “heat dome” envelops much of the Continent, the mercury has hit 42C in Seville, with Athens (37C), Rome (38C), Madrid (37C), Bordeaux (39C) and Lisbon (38C) also set to experience exceptionally high temperatures this week. Even Germany is bracing for 40C temperatures by the middle of the week. London, by comparison, is forecast to peak at a balmy 33C.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/34daf742ccd07511

The rest of his article has little to do with travel. Instead, he merely regurgitates global warming propaganda, warning that we will all to have to take our holidays in cooler climes in future.

I don’t know why he insists on quoting temperatures in cities, as most tourists go the beach or mountains in summer, where it is much cooler.

He uses the example of Seville, where it is apparently 42C. Seville, along with Cordoba, are the two hottest cities in Europe. The temperature there reached 46.6C thirty years ago in 1995, and temperatures of 40C and more are not unusual.

Same with the other cities he cites:

  • 37C in Athens – record 44.8C
  • 38C in Rome – record 40.6C
  • 37C in Madrid – record 40.7C
  • 38C in Lisbon – record 44.0C

He claims that the human body stops functioning optimally when outside temperatures exceed 40C, which makes you wonder how the natives in Spain manage every summer!

And he shows his naivety when he states that “Locals are shutting themselves away in dark houses during the days, with windows and shutters closed”. Surely as a supposed travel expert, he must know that this is something the peoples of these regions have always done.

I can personally testify for this as I saw it all the time on several walking holidays in the Pyrenees many years ago. Villages simply shut up shop for three or four hours around midday and then reopen later in the afternoon.

Meanwhile holidaymakers ignore these doom merchants and vote with their feet. According to the Guardian, Spain attracted 21.8 million international visitors last summer, a new record. There are so many tourists now that locals have been protesting!

Quite why the Telegraph keeps insulting the intelligence of its readers is beyond me. It clearly believes it knows better than them – hence the continuing presence of the increasingly irrelevant Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on their payroll.

Spain’s Govt Blames Everything But The Real Culprit For Blackouts

So that’s alright then! Nothing to worry about.
Nothing to do with the Spanish government’s obsession with renewable energy! Just blame it all on bureaucrats and capitalism.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62d8k8edgxo

So that’s alright then! Nothing to worry about.

Nothing to do with the Spanish government’s obsession with renewable energy! Just blame it all on bureaucrats and capitalism.

Except, of course, it was solar power, which was at front and centre of the blackouts, a fact which even the whitewash report could not disguise.

The catalyst for the blackout was a sudden loss of 2.2GW of electricity at Granada substation in southern Spain. The report does not appear to address why this happened, which you might have thought was crucial! But it is believed that one or two solar farms stopped transmitting because of negative prices – these resulted from too much solar generation for too little demand, and this is exactly how the market is supposed to work; negative prices lead to less generation, thus bringing the system into balance.

However solar power now makes up such a large part of Spain’s electricity (about 60% at the time of the blackouts), that the very system of negative pricing is a threat in itself to the grid.

As soon as that 2.2GW disappeared, voltages in the local grid plummeted, leading to a complicated chain reaction of grid disconnections. Within 30 seconds the entire Iberian Peninsula was experiencing a complete blackout.

The Government whitewash tried to put the blame on the grid operator Red Eléctrica not making sure enough gas power was on the system at the time, which might have provided enough inertia to provide the crucial seconds needed to stabilise the system.

The report, by the way. was presented by Sara Aagesen, Spain’s minister of “ecological transition and demographic challenge” – I suggest that in future, the Spanish Government makes sure its energy system is run by an energy expert, rather than a climate activist. According to Grok:

Aagesen graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid with a degree in chemical engineering, specializing in environmental affairs. Since 2002, she has worked extensively in climate action and energy transition, starting at the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC)

But it is Spanish government policy to minimise and eventually get rid of gas power. It was only two weeks before the blackouts that they were bragging that Spain’s grid ran entirely on renewable energy for the first time (a claim, by the way, which was fake!).

You can hardly overload your grid with intermittent renewables and then complain that there was not enough gas power to deal with those problems of intermittency. Neither can you mandate those renewables and then blame the grid operator for failing to deal with the problems created.

Despite the BBC’s distortions, the facts are very, very simple. If Spain had been running their grid with considerably more gas power and considerably less solar power, those blackouts categorically would not have occurred.

What is noticeable is that since the blackout, Spain has kept much more gas power running. Just before the blackouts, only 2GW of gas power was being produced, 7% of the total load.

In the last day or two, gas power has not dropped below 5GW.

Coincidence? I think not!

https://www.energymonitor.ai/power/live-eu-electricity-generation-map/

Engineering & Technology have a much more factual review of the report than the BBC’s propaganda here.

Spain’s Impossible Dream Of ‘Green’ Electricity

Thousands of wind turbines and millions of solar panels generated a massive blackout

From Watts Up With That?

Thousands of wind turbines and millions of solar panels generated a massive blackout

Paul Driessen

Updated Man of La Mancha lyrics could read: “To dream the impossible dream of clean, green, net-zero electricity, to fight the unbeatable foe of manmade climate cataclysms, we must run where the brave dare not go.”

Don Quixote saw windmills as malevolent and dangerous dragons. Spain’s governing classes view them from the Chinese perspective: benevolent and magical dragons.

They’ve erected over 22,000 gigantic windmills, to harness the wind and generate electricity. Portugal has nearly 3,000. Together, when conditions are perfect, they can generate almost 38 gigawatts.

Like Cervantes’ hero, the elites also want “to reach the unreachable star” – or at least capture the energy from one star: the sun. Spain and Portugal together also have 38 GW of photovoltaic solar panels.

However, the Iberian Peninsula neighbors have long ignored the dark sides of the forces they seek to commandeer.  

Those wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines sprawl across some 2,000,000 acres of Spanish and Portuguese vistas, habitats and croplands. That’s equal to Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

They kill eagles, bustards, vultures, and other raptors and birds. Building them requires mining, pollution and child labor on historically unprecedented scales. Solar panels are easily destroyed by storms.

Worst, they provide intermittent, weather-dependent electricity – necessitating expensive backup power and making the electrical grid unstable. Just how unstable was demonstrated recently, and dramatically.   

On April 16, for the first time, for a few minutes, Spain generated 100% of its electricity with wind, solar and hydro power.

A fortnight later, on April 28, a prolonged blackout sent Iberia into chaos. Lights, televisions, refrigerators, cell phones and traffic lights went dark. Trains, subways and elevators trapped passengers. Airports canceled flights. Hospital backup power provided only basic and emergency services.

The outage even struck parts of France and Belgium. It was Europe’s biggest blackout ever. If France hadn’t shut off its connection to Spain’s cascading problems, all of Europe could have shut down.

Just a week later, another blackout hit Spain’s Canary Islands.

Power outages are nothing new. But the Spain-Portugal blackouts underscore fundamental problems with the supposedly “inevitable transition” from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear electricity to wind, solar and battery power.

They show that the only inevitability will be more frequent and severe blackouts – because of our soaring reliance on electricity … political decisions to mothball or destroy reliable generating systems … and ideological commitments to “green” energy.

We’re effectively being told: You’ll have electricity when it’s available – not necessarily when you need it. In this modern technological era, that is absurd, outrageous, intolerable and dangerous.

One fundamental reality must override all other considerations: Modern industrialized societies require enormous quantities of steady, synchronous alternating current, 24/7 – at the precise frequency of 50 Hertz in Europe and 60 Hz in the United States. Without it, life shuts down, societies descend into chaos, and people die.

Frequencies outside 0.2 Hz above or below that frequency can trigger major emergencies. A mere ±0.5 Hz deviation can cause system-wide cascading blackouts.

In Spain’s case, with 80% of its power now coming from renewable sources, the country simply did not have enough reliable, dispatchable, instantly accessible power on hand to keep its grid from collapsing when a power generation glitch happened.

Rice University’s Baker Institute explained how a malfunction at two Spanish solar power plants triggered the widespread chaos.

“At approximately 12:30 pm local time in Spain – just minutes before the grid collapsed – renewable sources accounted for 78% of electricity generation in the Iberian system, with solar alone contributing nearly 60%. By contrast, conventional technologies, such as gas-fired and nuclear power plants, comprised only around 15% of the total generation mix….

“[Then] two consecutive generation loss events occurred in southwestern Spain, likely involving large solar installations…. Given the limited availability of conventional generation, these unexpected losses, combined with reduced support from neighboring systems – the instability triggered a disconnection from the French system – created a “perfect storm” for a massive power outage.

“In just five seconds, Spain lost approximately 15 GW of capacity, equivalent to 60% of its national electricity demand. The remaining generation was insufficient to meet demand, thus triggering a cascading failure across the entire grid. Various generating units were automatically disconnected to protect infrastructure, and nuclear plants were shut down in accordance with safety protocols.”

That’s all it took. In the blink of an eye, the Iberian Peninsula and beyond had a massive blackout.

Unless America’s Net Zero politicians and utility companies wake up to reality, multiple US states – and entire regions – face similar preventable (indeed virtually inevitable) disasters. The same nightmarish realities confront other countries worldwide.

First, because federal, state and local governments have pressured or ordered utility companies to shut down coal, gas, nuclear and even hydro power plants that still have years or decades of operational life. Other utilities have done so voluntarily, to showcase their climate and green energy bona fides.

Second, because the same governments also provide subsidies, loan guarantees, tax breaks, rapid permitting, and exemptions from endangered species and other environmental rules – to incentivize utilities to build more and more wind, solar and battery installations, instead of traditional power plants.

Third, because those same entities demand and often subsidize a steady conversion to electricity from gasoline and natural gas. Vehicles, home and apartment building heating systems, stoves and ovens, water heaters, lawn mowers, leaf blowers and more must be powered by electricity – to save the planet from manmade climate change – even as electricity generation and reliability dwindle.

This shortsighted, ideological, virtue-signaling government intrusion into what should be market-driven, reality-based, reliable-electricity-focused decisions puts our grid, our society and our lives at risk.

Abundant, reliable, affordable electricity is the lifeblood of twenty-first century civilization. Modern industrialized societies simply cannot function, or even survive, if they are forced to rely on land-hungry, expensive, insufficient, intermittent electricity.

And yet, largely because of misplaced climate fears (about human-induced droughts and a “thirstier atmosphere,” for example), $9 trillion has been spent globally over the past decade on wind and solar power, electric vehicles, energy storage, electrified heating and power grid adjustments.  

Congress, state governors and legislatures, the Trump Administration, our courts and utility companies need to act quickly and decisively to end this wasteful spending and fix our fragile electricity generating system and grid. The news media and academia must stop parroting “climate crisis” and “renewable energy” talking points, and start presenting the complexities and realities of these issues.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, climate change, environmental protection and human rights.

AEP Ignores The Green Elephant In The Room

AEP is getting ever more desperate to defend his green energy agenda.
In his latest piece in the Telegraph, he tries to blame the blackouts in Spain on the Socialist Government, while ignoring the green elephant in the room.

ChatGPT

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

AEP is getting ever more desperate to defend his green energy agenda.

In his latest piece in the Telegraph, he tries to blame the blackouts in Spain on the Socialist Government, while ignoring the green elephant in the room:

The stench of a cover-up hangs over Spain’s giant blackout, the worst electricity failure in any developed country in modern times.

Faith in the current investigation has reached rock-bottom. The socialist government of Pedro Sánchez is trying to buy time with explanations that either make no technical sense or veer into absurdity.

Red Eléctrica, which runs the grid, is accused of stonewalling everybody.

Sources in Brussels have told The Telegraph that the authorities were conducting an experiment before the system crashed, probing how far they could push reliance on renewables in preparation for Spain’s rushed phase-out of nuclear reactors from 2027.

The government seems to have pushed the pace recklessly, before making the necessary investments in a sophisticated 21st-century smart grid capable of handling it.

Full story here.

I don’t know what this secret experiment was. There has been no secret about the rapid rollout of wind and solar capacity in recent years. As most of this is embedded, the Spanish grid have no means of controlling it.

I don’t recall AEP writing in the past that this insanely fast rollout should be stopped until billions had been spent strengthening the grid. Nor, for that matter, have I seen the same warnings about Miliband’s equally reckless pursuit of Clean Power 2030 here.

Nor is there any evidence that his so-called smart grid would have stopped the blackouts, which energy experts, unlike those with a green agenda like AEP, have been warning about for years.

While we await the official verdict, it seems clear that a surge in solar power at a local level overloaded the grid, which, partly due to a lack of inertia, quickly spread across the country.

AEP then goes on to accuse energy experts of conflating inertia and intermittency:

“Foes of green energy like to mix up the inertia problem with the separate issue of what happens when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. The short-term answer is batteries, cryogenic compressed air and interconnectors. Spain lacks enough of any of them.”

In fact they are both intricately related. It is the inherent uncontrollable variability of wind and solar power that can trigger problems in the first place, and it is lack of inertia which then makes it much more difficult to contain the problem afterwards.

With a grid based on dispatchable power, neither issue is a problem.

Note too that yet again he is off in Fantasyland, claiming that batteries and compressed air can solve the problem of intermittency, when they are designed just to fill in for a few minutes or so.

He is right about one thing though – there will be a cover up, but just not the one he imagines. My guess is that the mad rush to renewable energy will be absolved of any blame, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

BP Cancels “Sustainable Jet Fuel” Project

$5 Billion Green Energy investment slashed – “Weaker-than-anticipated growth in the market”

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

$5 Billion Green Energy investment slashed – “Weaker-than-anticipated growth in the market”

BP stirs controversy after halting operations for new type of fuel: ‘Weaker-than-anticipated growth in the market’

This pivot from a major global energy player like BP is a significant blow.

By Brent WigginsMay 24, 2025

Oil giant BP has ceased a project to produce “clean jet fuel” at its Castellon refinery in Spain. The move signals a broader concern and shift in the company’s approach to cleaner energy initiatives. BP’s decision raises questions about the commitment of major energy corporations to transitioning away from polluting, dirty energy sources.

What’s happening?

According to a Bloomberg News report cited by Reuters, BP paused its investment in producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the Spanish facility. The reason given was “weaker-than-anticipated growth in the market” for these cleaner alternatives.

Halting clean energy plans comes on the heels of a more strategic overhaul BP announced in February. The company revealed plans to increase its investments in oil and gas production while slashing spending on renewable energy projects by over $5 billion annually.

…

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss stated that the energy transition “has not proceeded at the pace we would have thought,” citing strong ongoing demand for oil and gas, per Reuters. His perspective might reflect current market dynamics. 

…

Despite these setbacks, the broader push for cleaner energy continues globally. …Read more: 

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/bp-sustainable-aviation-fuel-castellon-refinery/

You have to admire the unfounded optimism of climate advocates. Artificial intelligence is crashing their dreams of a renewable powered future, global demand for oil and gas is surging, even Spain recently pulled back from their disastrous plans for a 100% renewable grid, after their recent major blackout. But greens still think it is credible to claim, “the broader push for clean energy continues globally”.

European Blackout Update (yes, it was solar)