{"id":386992,"date":"2025-07-04T18:46:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386992"},"modified":"2025-07-04T18:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:46:19","slug":"blackouts-underscore-global-power-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386992","title":{"rendered":"Blackouts underscore global power crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Craig Rucker<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Environmentalists, along with some politicians and their allies, argue that fossil fuel and nuclear power are being irreversibly replaced by wind and solar power. They refuse to acknowledge that mining, cropland and habitat destruction, toxic wastes, and other adverse effects make these electricity sources anything but clean, renewable, or sustainable \u2014 or that wind and sunshine cannot provide raw materials for 6,000-plus essential products that come from petrochemicals: paints, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, clothing, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their claim that wind and solar power are cheaper than coal, gas, or nuclear power ignores that these electricity generators are weather-dependent and intermittent \u2014 and must be backed up by coal, gas, and nuclear power, or by massive fire-prone battery installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those multi-billion-dollar backup generators double or triple electricity costs, helping explain why British and German families pay three times what typical American families do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite enormous subsidies, wind and solar companies and installations frequently fail. Sunnova Energy is the latest solar company to file for bankruptcy. California\u2019s Ivanpah solar plant is also going belly-up. Ivanpah\u2019s $2.2 billion \u201cconcentrated solar thermal power plant\u201d uses 347,000 75-square-foot mirrors on 3,500 acres to generate electricity when the sun shines. The state\u2019s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant generates 20 times more electricity 24\/7\/365 from one-fifth the acreage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power outages are an equally serious problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A basic energy rule states that the more a state or country relies on unreliable wind and solar power, the more often it will experience blackouts. A corollary: the more voters elect politicians who focus on rare fish and climate cataclysms, the more they will be affected by blackouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 16, Spain briefly generated 100 percent of its electricity from wind, solar and hydropower. Twelve days later, a massive blackout sent Spain, Portugal, and parts of France and Belgium into chaos. Airports canceled flights; lights, computers, televisions, refrigerators, cell phones, traffic lights, trains, subways, and elevators stopped working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All it took was a sudden midday loss of 60 percent of Spain\u2019s electricity needs caused by problems in large solar installations. It triggered \u201ca cascading failure across the entire grid.\u201d Other generating units automatically shut down for safety or to protect the grid and other infrastructure. If nuclear-powered France hadn\u2019t closed its connection to Spain, most of Europe could have shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week later, another blackout hit Spain\u2019s Canary Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, a sudden power outage disrupted Memorial Day weekend celebrations for families across southeastern Louisiana as power demand surged during the hottest part of the day. The blackout resulted from a \u201cload shed\u201d order from the regional grid reliability authority, which told utility companies to cut off electricity to customers \u201cto prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the corollary rule suggests, the load shed was needed \u2014 and will likely be necessary many times \u2014 because Pelican State politicians pay more attention to fashionable issues than to vital, life-or-death matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They provide subsidies, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and fast-track permits for wind, solar and battery installations, while shutting down reliable power plants and refusing to build additional ones. Meanwhile, they force families and businesses to convert vehicles, heating systems, stoves, water heaters and lawnmowers from gasoline and natural gas to electricity. They drive up demand while reducing electricity generation and reliability, especially during peak demand periods driven by extreme heat and cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated, prolonged, and rolling blackouts are the inevitable result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is happening nationwide, particularly in states with the most wind and solar electricity. California leads all states in generating solar electricity and is also a significant producer of wind energy. Texas is by far the top wind electricity generator and a major solar electricity producer. Florida is number three for solar but generates no wind power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, California also accounted for 24 percent of all U.S. power outages, Texas for 14 percent. Over the last 20 years, Florida has had the most people per capita affected by power outages, primarily due to hurricanes, but lags well behind California, Texas, New York, and Michigan in the number of blackouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York\u2019s obsession with climate change has left it open to a self-inflicted blackout disaster. The fundamental problems? Insufficient surplus (margin of safety) generation to account for equipment failures, human errors, and rising electricity demand for data centers, artificial intelligence, and mandated conversions to electricity, plus aging grid infrastructure that cannot cope with sudden surges and plunges in generation by large wind and solar installations and rooftop photovoltaic solar feeding into the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hacking and terrorism also pose major dangers. One attack on a strategically chosen power plant or transformer could shut down an entire region. And America\u2019s heavy reliance on China for wind turbines and transformers, with backdoor entry ports for \u201cmaintenance\u201d and \u201csoftware updates,\u201d makes the country vulnerable to blackouts lasting days, weeks, or months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians and voters need to get a grip on the grid and on other critical quality-of-life issues and stop obsessing over fashionable, politicized mini-matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at DC Journal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Environmentalists, along with some politicians and their allies, argue that fossil fuel and nuclear power are being irreversibly replaced by wind and solar power. They refuse to acknowledge that mining, cropland and habitat destruction, toxic wastes, and other adverse effects make these electricity sources anything but clean, renewable, or sustainable \u2014 or that wind and sunshine cannot provide raw materials for 6,000-plus essential products that come from petrochemicals: paints, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, clothing, and much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":386996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818279,691836321,691836320,691819121],"class_list":{"0":"post-386992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-blackouts","9":"tag-enormous-subsidies","10":"tag-global-power-crisis","11":"tag-wind-and-solar-power","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Blackout.webp?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1CFO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285688,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=285688","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":0},"title":"Virginia \u2013 Don\u2019t Follow Net-Zero Lemmings Over the Energy Cliff","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"States that link climate and energy policies to California and \u2018climate crisis\u2019 will pay high price. Mandates for electric vehicles, wind and solar power, and a magical transition to a fossil-fuel-free energy utopia are critical issues this year and in 2024. From Watts Up With That? States that link climate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Blackouts\"","block_context":{"text":"Blackouts","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=blackouts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":245038,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=245038","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":1},"title":"You cannot run businesses, hospitals, and the military on occasional electricity!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Power grid blackouts are driven by the rapid retirement of small acreage coal and natural gas power plants.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-639.png?fit=847%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-639.png?fit=847%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-639.png?fit=847%2C565&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-639.png?fit=847%2C565&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":268914,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268914","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":2},"title":"And now, the climate gang Is coming for our thermostats","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2019, candidate Joe Biden pledged to voters that, if elected president, \u201cWe\u2019re going to end fossil fuel.\u201d Since taking office, he has worked ceaselessly with the radical environmentalists who call the shots and set the agenda to make good on his campaign promise by waging an all-out war against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate gang\"","block_context":{"text":"climate gang","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-gang"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0thermostat-istock-2.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0thermostat-istock-2.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0thermostat-istock-2.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0thermostat-istock-2.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0thermostat-istock-2.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":240114,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=240114","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":3},"title":"RE-Treat: Europe\u2019s Repeated Wind & Solar Failures Force Renewable Energy Reversal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Germany and Britain are so heavily dependent on wind and solar, that gloomy, windless weather now presents an existential threat. The Germans have even coined a word for it: \u2018dunkelflaute\u2019.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-750.png?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-750.png?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-750.png?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-750.png?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-750.png?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":234726,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=234726","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":4},"title":"Now is the Winter of Our Renewables Discontent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The cold snap is exposing the limits of wind and solar \u2013 and the insanity of the green agenda.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00frozen-solar-farm.png?fit=970%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00frozen-solar-farm.png?fit=970%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00frozen-solar-farm.png?fit=970%2C648&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00frozen-solar-farm.png?fit=970%2C648&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248137,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248137","url_meta":{"origin":386992,"position":5},"title":"Reality Bites: Europe\u2019s Wind & Solar Disaster Forces Serious Reversal On \u2018Green\u2019 Transition","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Investment in new wind turbines and solar panels has plummeted across Europe. Coal-fired power is back in vogue and nuclear plants are the next must-have.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1a4120207027627f0b.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1a4120207027627f0b.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1a4120207027627f0b.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1a4120207027627f0b.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1a4120207027627f0b.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386992"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386997,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386992\/revisions\/386997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/386996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}