The worst thing is that solar power is failing in the springtime in one of the sunniest places in Europe:
Spain’s grid operator admitted today that solar power could be to blame for the blackouts that brought chaos to much of the Iberian peninsular on Monday.
Red Eléctrica’s System Operations Chief Eduardo Prieto told a news briefing the electricity system was hit by a dramatic power generation loss in southwestern Spain, that caused instability in the system that led to its disconnection from the French grid. He said it was quite possible that the affected generation was solar, but it was to early to say for sure. Prieto said the system was now stable and working normally.
The partly state-owned operator’s preliminary assessment ruled out cyberattack as the cause of the outage, he added – after officials had tentatively suggested on Monday it was still a line they were exploring. Criticism has been mounting on the Spanish government to explain the blackouts, which saw planes grounded, trains stopped and traffic brought to a standstill in major cities.
It’s long past time to begin discussing the implications of both climate change and clean energy being constructed on fundamentally false assumptions. How much further does civilization have to decline before we start taking on the challenge of shoring up the foundations that have been systematically weakened for the last 50 years?