Tag: green energy

Eco-experiment that ‘blacked out entire country’: Spanish scientists ‘were experimenting with how far they could push renewable energy’ before country-wide chaos

Spanish authorities were experimenting with how far they could push their reliance on renewable energy before the Iberian Peninsula was hit with a massive power outage last month, it has been suggested. 

As people wait for more answers on what caused the power cut that disrupted tens of millions of lives across Spain and Portugal, several have questioned Spain’s heavy reliance on renewable energy sources as it plans to phase out nuclear reactors. 

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has rejected such criticism, asking for patience while the government investigates the causes of the historic blackout. 

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

Now, it has been suggested that the Spanish government was carrying out an experiment before the country’s grid system crashed, The Telegraph reports. 

Under said test, authorities had been trialling how far they could push their reliance on renewables as they prepared for Spain’s phase-out of nuclear reactors from 2027. 

The Spanish Association of Electrical Energy Companies (Aelec), which has criticised the inquiry into the blackout’s cause, has now said it was not the country’s generators that failed to deliver power to the grid, but rather it was the grid that failed to manage it and then shut down automatically. 

The head of Spain’s photovoltaic association, Jose Donoso, had made a similar suggestion earlier this month, telling newsoutlet 20Minutos: ‘It’s a matter of logic; the fact that the entire system goes down because of a photovoltaic plant makes no sense.

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AGAIN? Spain Hit by Widespread Phone and Internet Outages Less Than a Month After Mass Blackouts

Led by a Socialist government and devoted to ‘Net-Zero’ climate fantasies, Spain has of late become increasingly unstable country when it comes to its unreliable infrastructure.

Not even a month ago, the country was plunged into darkness by a massive blackout, and today (20) a widespread internet and phone outage caused alarm in the population.

The Telegraph reported:

“Spain was hit by phone and internet blackouts on Tuesday morning, just weeks after a power failure plunged the country into darkness.

Landline and mobile services were brought down across the country after a botched system upgrade by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica.”

The outage disrupted the lives of the population, and was particularly harmful to the work of emergency call operators.

The problems began at 2am local time, and initially affected land-lines mostly.

“Regions thought to be affected by the blackouts include the Basque Country, Andalusia, Aragon and Extremadura.”

A spokesman for telecom giant Telefonica said around lunchtime that the issue was resolved.

“The spokesman added: ‘This morning we had an incident that affected the fixed communications services of some companies and public services. We have been working from the outset to restore these services, which have now been fully recovered’.”

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Trump officials allow NY wind farm project to resume construction following intervention from Hochul, Adams

The Trump administration lifted a stop-work order that threatened over 1,000 jobs at a wind farm project off the coast of Long Island Monday — at the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams.

Construction at the Empire Wind 1 site was halted on April 16 after the Department of the Interior concluded that the project and its permit approval were “rushed through” by the Biden administration.

The project, just one cog in New York’s grander push to become fossil fuel-free by 2050, is set to power 500,000 homes through green energy provided by wind turbines. It has faced steep criticism from Nassau County officials, who claim that the project threatens marine life and the local fishing industry.

Hochul promised to fight the stop-work order the same day it was put into place, noting that the bipartisan plan had “already put shovels in the ground.”

“I knew this critical project needed to move forward and have spent weeks pushing the federal government to rescind the stop work order to allow the workers to return and ensure this important source of renewable power could come to fruition,” Hochul said.

“I want to thank President Trump for his willingness to work with me to save the 1,500 good-paying union jobs that were on the line and helping get this essential project back on track. New York’s economic future is going to be powered by abundant, clean energy that helps our homes and businesses thrive. I fought to save clean energy jobs in New York — and we got it done.”

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13 Republicans press leadership for more flexibility in green energy tax credit phaseout

A group of 13 House Republicans is asking for more flexibility for climate-friendly tax credits than what’s in the party’s current budget bill, underscoring the difficulty of getting the entire party on the same page.

In a written statement posted by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) on the social platform X, the 13 Republicans ask House leadership to “consider three thoughtful changes” to the legislation that phases out a significant chunk of Democrats’ tax credits for low carbon energy sources. 

They point to provisions that are expected to make it difficult for energy companies to actually claim the credits during this phaseout period.

Specifically, they ask for more flexibility on newly proposed supply chain requirements and a provision that could make it more difficult for projects to get financing. They also ask for more time, saying the credit phaseout should be based on when projects “start construction” rather than when they’re “placed in service.”

“The last thing any of us want to do is provoke an energy crisis or cause higher energy bills for working families,” they said.

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Austria walks back support for EU’s 2040 climate target

Austria’s new government has declined to endorse the European Commission’s recommendation for a 90 percent cut in planet-warming emissions by 2040, depriving Brussels of an expected ally for the embattled target.

Vienna never explicitly agreed to support the target, but former Austrian Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler was among the first to welcome the EU executive’s suggestion for a 90 percent reduction in February 2024. Austria, she stressed, intended to slash national emissions to net-zero by 2040 in any case. 

Yet Gewessler’s Greens are no longer in power, and the new coalition government is taking a more cautious position. 

“It’s crucial that a 2040 climate target helps secure [Europe’s] competitiveness, including for green technologies, as well as food security and a just transition,” said a spokesperson for Austria’s agriculture and environment ministry when asked by POLITICO last week whether the government supports a 90 percent goal. 

“We now have to wait for the Commission’s concrete proposal, which we will examine in detail because the small print is also relevant for achieving the 2040 target,” they added. 

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Inside The Dysfunctional Process Driving Biden’s ‘Clean Energy’ Frenzy

On Jan. 20, President Trump ordered a pause in federal leasing and permitting of offshore wind plants. In mid-April, he halted construction of the Empire Wind installation off the coast of Long Island, a relief to many in the local fishing and hospitality industries. He also ordered a leasing and permitting review of all 11 offshore wind projects approved during the Biden years.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that Empire Wind’s approval “was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project.”

There was a lot of that going around. Offshore wind was a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s mad dash for “clean energy” and “net-zero” emissions. The administration acted as though it had this one shot — a limited window in which to throw up as many wind installations as it could. As it turns out, that was true enough. But in the meantime, there were toes to step on and corners to cut.

Just up the coast from Empire Wind is the South Fork Wind installation off Rhode Island. The Biden Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) folks didn’t exactly endear themselves to the locals. Protect the Public’s Trust obtained a letter sent to BOEM in November 2022 by a coalition of local townships, Indian tribes, historic preservation groups and others. “We have NEVER seen a more dysfunctional process,” it said.

As part of the permitting process, the Interior Department is required to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act, to assess the effects of federal projects on historic properties, including those of cultural significance to Native Americans. Ocean Energy Management officials told attorneys for the locals they “don’t have time to comply with National Historic Preservation Act.” An appeal to the federal advisory council tasked with oversight of compliance with that act got them nowhere. As the letter to BOEM said, the “permitting review has become a theater of the absurd.”

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Texas Bill Would Require Solar Power Plants to Have Gas and Coal Backup

A bill working its way through the Texas legislature has caused some double takes with language that requires solar plants to provide power in the dark.

State bill S.B. 715 passed the Senate this week, and if adopted by the Texas house it would require any renewable power providers to buy backup power, typically from coal or gas plants, the Hill reported.

Texas consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in his analysis of the legislation that the measure would require solar plants to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway.”

Double takes aside, the legislation is part of three Republican bills advancing through the state legislature that could offset Texas’ green energy progress and give fossil fuels an advantage in the state’s energy market, Reason reported. Texas generates the most renewable energy in the nation.

The bill is supported by a conservative think tank called the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which argues traditional power sources are still needed to make up for the unpredictability of wind and solar power. As Breitbart reported, Texas faced power shortages and rolling blackouts in 2021 as cold weather and ice froze the state’s wind turbines.

A state business lobby group disagrees, evoking the same fear of blackouts. The Texas Association of Business (TAB) predicted the measure would lead to unpredictable supply, costing the state $5.2 billion more per year and individual consumers on average $225 more per year in power costs. In addition to cost increases, the TAB analysis asserted, Texans would also face a higher risk of blackouts in the heat of summer or in future ice storms.

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Spain Blackouts Prompt EU Push for More Censorship Under “Preparedness Strategy” Citing “Disinformation” Threats

These days, no event, incident, or occasion, regardless of its nature, appears to be too big or too small to use as an excuse to promote more censorship in the name of “combating disinformation.”

Last week, Spain and Portugal lived through an embarrassing episode of widespread electricity blackouts – and the current consensus is that the reason is even more embarrassing: old infrastructure, fraught with its own problems – that are only compounded by endless attempts to work “green” energy sources into it.

Trillions of dollars is the figure that experts are mentioning as needed to get the EU’s electricity grid up to speed – or rather, balance the reality with the aggressive “progressive” policy pushes so that a similar crisis is averted going forward.

But a conversation about these topics is apparently a hard one to have for the EU bureaucracy.

Instead, it, through the mouth of Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality Hadja Lahbib, prefers to effectively misguide, and deflect away from that, and onto the key talking points that are sure to provoke a sense of paranoia among citizens: cyberattacks and supply chain disruptions (as a result of this type of threats).

In other words – instead of addressing actual problem(s), the focus is being shifted to how information around them should be best managed, to somehow score public opinion points.

Speaking for Spain’s El Mundo, Lahbib mentioned the EU Preparation Strategy, and the Union Strategy for Preparation – apparently, her “shorthand” for the formal, and oddly phrased, “EU Preparedness Union Strategy.”

It is a set of measures meant to “counter foreign information manipulation and disinformation more systematically” by fully using the EU’s Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) toolbox, the censorship law Digital Services Act (DSA), and the censorship initiative – the upcoming European Democracy Shield.

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Spain hit by more blackouts as ‘tens of thousands’ left without power in Canary Islands a week after nationwide outages

A power outage hit several areas of the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands on Thursday, just a week after national outages.

Local media reported that thousands of locals and holidaymakers across the island were left without power for nearly two hours after a blackout occurred at around 10am local time.

The affected areas included Los Llanos de Aridane, Breña Alta, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Fuencaliente.

More than twenty towns were left without in the dark in these areas, stretching from north to south of the island, before Endesa and Red Eléctrica begun working on restoring power.

Javier Llamas, the mayor of the town of Aridane, told a local radio station at around midday that: ‘More than half of the power outage has already been restored.’    

Local media reports explained how the power outage could potentially affect up to 30,000 people in La Palma.

‘The source is unknown for now, but everything points to a problem at the Los Guinchos power plant,’ La Radio Canaria said.

La Palma Island Council urged residents to remain calm, avoid overwhelming emergency services, call 112 only if absolutely necessary, and prioritise saving battery life on mobile devices. 

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Is The New York Times Serious With This Headline About the Spanish Blackout?

Spain made a huge announcement this year: it is now 100 percent powered by renewable energy. Green warriors unite! The planet is saved. Global warming is over, except that it’s not. And like Solyndra, this entire method of powering a nation was exposed as a fraud and a scam. There was an 18-hour blackout because the grid couldn’t handle it. The best part is that The New York Times had this headline for the fiasco: “How Spain’s Success in Renewable Energy May Have Left It Vulnerable.”

Fact check: If the grid goes down, or is “vulnerable,” then the renewable energy push was not a success: 

Spain’s power company, Red Eléctrica, proudly declared on April 16 that enough renewable energy had been generated to cover demand. “The ecological transition is moving forward,” it said. 

Less than two weeks later, Spain and Portugal experienced an 18-hour blackout that disrupted daily life, shutting down businesses and schools and crippling trains and mobile networks. 

Officials have given few details on the cause of the outage. But the incident exposed how Spain and Portugal, promoted as success stories in Europe’s renewable energy transition, are also uniquely vulnerable to outages, given their relative isolation from the rest of the continent’s energy supply.

“This disruption serves as a clear warning,” wrote Pratheeksha Ramdas, an analyst at Rystad Energy, a consulting firm. “Future grid failures could have even more severe consequences,” she added. 

The widespread outage raises questions about the resilience of the power infrastructure in Spain and Portugal — and to an extent, Europe. The two countries have invested heavily in building renewable energy sources like wind turbines and solar farms. 

More than half of Spain’s electricity came from renewable energy as of last year, up from about a quarter 15 years ago. That rapid increase has put Spain at the forefront of Europe’s transition to renewable energy and led to much lower electricity prices and less reliance on fossil fuels. 

This shift, though, may also have made the grid more prone to the sort of disruption that occurred on Monday. “When you have more renewables on the grid,” Ms. Ramdas said, “then your grid is more sensitive for these kind of disturbances.” 

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