Spain’s disastrous national blackout in April was triggered by solar farms switching off in response to plummeting power prices, an official investigation has found. The Telegraph has more.
A Government report into Europe’s biggest power cut found that Spain’s solar farms were generating so much power on April 28th, a particularly sunny day, that prices became “negative” – meaning there were no profits to be made in operating them.
Plunging prices triggered a mass switch-off, which sent voltage and frequency fluctuations cascading across the national grids of both Spain and Portugal. Back-up systems meant to guard against such fluctuations were not in effect.
This caused blackouts that left more than 60 million people across the Iberian peninsula without power, the Spanish Government report concluded.
The power cut caused massive gridlock in cities and left thousands stranded on trains and in elevators across the Iberian peninsula. Several deaths were also linked to the incident.
Experts said in the immediate aftermath of the power cut that a reliance on Net Zero energy had left Spain and Portugal vulnerable to the blackouts because of the way renewable power is generated. However, Spain’s Left-wing Government has repeatedly insisted that green energy was not to blame.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition People’s Party (PP), said ministers were “so intent on being the greenest in the world that you have led Spaniards into the dark”, the BBC reported.
The investigation’s findings will fuel concerns about Britain’s race to Net Zero, led by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary. Mr Miliband wants to make Britain’s energy system carbon free by 2030, a shift that will see the country rely almost entirely on renewable energy, such as wind, solar and nuclear to keep the lights on.
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, Britain’s National Energy System Operator (Neso) has set an ambition to run the power grid without gas by the end of the year, for a trial period to begin with. Are lessons being learned? It doesn’t look like it.
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