In today’s episode of Should’a Asked Kate;

Spain’s grid operator warned that a resurgence in sharp voltage swings threatens to disrupt the country’s power supply less than six months after it suffered the most severe outage in Europe in decades.

Red Electrica requested urgent changes to its operating procedures to better manage voltage in its system, according to a document published by the regulator. The company said the challenges are being caused by abrupt changes in scheduled production, particularly from renewable power plants.

It’s a sign that while investigators have called the events of that blackout unprecedented, the conditions that led to it may be a persistent problem for the stability of Spain’s power network. Spain has been a leader in deployment of renewables and its grid stresses will be closely watched by grid operators across Europe who seek to rapidly decarbonize their grids without jeopardizing reliability.

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.