The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout
When a grid failure plunged 55 million people in Spain and Portugal into darkness at the end of April, it should have been a wake-up call on green energy. Climate activists promised that solar and wind power were the future of cheap, dependable electricity. The massive half-day blackout shows otherwise. The nature of solar and wind generation makes grids that rely on them more prone to collapse—an issue that’s particularly expensive to ameliorate. […]
Grids need to stay on a very stable frequency—generally 50 Hertz in Europe—or else you get blackouts. Fossil-fuel, hydro and nuclear generation all solve this problem naturally because they generate energy by powering massive spinning turbines. The inertia of these heavy rotating masses resists changes in speed and hence frequency, so that when sudden demand swings would otherwise drop or hike grid frequency, the turbines work as immense buffers. But wind and solar don’t power such heavy turbines to generate energy. It’s possible to make up for this with cutting-edge technology such as advanced inverters or synthetic inertia. But many solar and wind farms haven’t undergone these expensive upgrades. If a grid dominated by those two power sources gets off frequency, a blackout is more likely than in a system that relies on other energy sources.
Green energy manufacturer can’t afford the cost of energy;
A major supplier to Britain’s green energy industry is set to close after its Japanese owner failed to clinch a rescue deal for the company and its 250 workers.
Wigan-based Electric Glass Fiber UK (EGFU), which is owned by Nippon Electric Glass (NEG), makes vital components used in wind turbines and electric cars. Its closure puts net zero supply chains under threat.
The day when it happened, Spanish gov said that the problem was with the power grid 🙂
Which is like going to the doctor with some pain and doctor’s expert opinion is: “the problem is with your body”.
Actually Spanish gov continues the trend of clueless/stupid, I heard yesterday some Spanish gov guy very upset that they will not be able to meet the new 5% NATO expense. Buddy, shut thef up, why jump the gun so early and publicly? Wait, see, evaluate, discuss. Certainly not go emo like some outraged teenager.
Correct me if I’m wrong … the Spanish government follows every “green energy edict” spittled out of the EU Ministry of Greenishness. They do this so they receive a constant flow of € from Brussels. Spain is a debtor EU State. They will do anything and everything their Socialist overlords tell them to do.
Physics? How many €’s is that?
” … makes vital components used in wind turbines and electric cars.”
Geez. If I was a Brit I’d be worried. Those things sit so highly in our hierarchy of needs.
Two little words: Beat Frequencies. Also known as “ringing.”
You get two strings on your guitar and play the same note. If they’re slightly out of tune with each other they make that wow-wow-wow change in loudness as the two sources interfere with each other, getting louder and softer.
Same thing with twin engine airplanes. Pilots adjust the engines to be both running at the same RPM by listening to the beat frequencies even out.
Now imagine, instead of sound, you have MEGAWATTS of electricity running in little wires that are barely big enough to contain the energy, and you have a wind farm with chaotic frequencies on the same grid with a big generator making one frequency steadily. They converge closely to the big generator, but they don’t quite land exactly on the right frequency, so they make beats. Chaotically. So many beat frequencies. Because the wind is -variable-, not constant.
And as chaotic systems -ALWAYS- do, eventually they will all line up and deliver a peak. And melt everything. Ka-pow. And that’s why Spain went dark. (Ever see those experiments where all the little tick-tock metronomes line up and all tick at once? They always do it if you let them run long enough. It’s a Law of the Universe.)
I heard about this beat frequency thing probably ten years ago on some forum where physicists and power engineers were yelling about the power grid, and how windmills were Really Freaking Bad News for everybody. How ringing in the lines was causing things to halt, melt and burst into flames on a pretty regular basis. You get a spike where you run a megawatt of power through a transformer built to handle kilowatts, it goes on fire.
It’s physics. This is how it works. There is no escape from it, just like there’s no escape from gravity or inertia.
So the people who insist there must be windmills have been told about this. I’m sure, given how engineers and physics nerds are, they’ve had it SCREAMED in their faces countless times. And yet they do it anyway. And then Spain has a huge freakin’ blackout because they did it anyway.
So at this point I’m forced to admit to myself that they do not care if it works. They’ve been warned, they’ve seen the results of their actions, and they KEEP DOING IT. We might want to do something about that.
“Two little words: Beat Frequencies. Also known as “ringing.””
Great explanation, Phantom.
The best part is reading the comments on the WSJ article made by the eco-weenies desperate to hide the truth and keep the scam going. What we’ve heard is true: it’s a religion, and you can’t reason with them about it.
“Green and Sustainable” energy is pushed by libtards. You can explain the problem as much as you like, libtards – such as this E David Santoler – will not listen. Because what libtards lack for in intelligence they more than make up for in arrogance.
Yup. And now they will do electric cars for all in 2035.
Green energy manufacturer can’t afford cheap green energy.
Maybe they can do like England and use “biomass”. The biggest source of renewables in the UK. Millions of tons. In ordinary English it means they burn trees. Like the old steam trains when they ran out of coal and ties to burn. It’s a renewable because, uh, trees grow back. Technically. Maybe we should ship them our burned out trees as charcoal? Unfortunately Green activists don’t chain themselves to trees anymore, there used to be a time they protected trees instead of burning them.