A few hours later, rescuers arrive and separate you and your fellow passengers from the food stall train. I head down the street in hopes of getting a taxi or an Uber. However, if you don’t have a mobile app and your credit card machine is not inoperable, you will be forced to search for ATMs. (Related: David Blackmon: Is the solar boom about to burst?)

You soon find that everyone else is in the same predicament. A hospital operated by an emergency backup system. People trapped inside the elevator. Traffic groaned due to the inoperable stoplight. The gas station pump is not working. The airport terminal has been closed. People in darkened houses desperately search for candle and battery operated radios to learn what’s going on.

On April 28, some residents of Spain, Portugal and France did not need to try and imagine this nightmare scenario. They are Unprecedented power outage It affected at least 55 million people after the Iberian Peninsula’s electric grid system failed.

According to the French 24 News Channel, the outages that have been called the worst in history in Europe “companies, hospitals, transportation systems, mobile networks and other critical infrastructure.”

Many news outlets, especially in the US, have argued for days that it is too early to say what caused a massive blackout. But others admitted that it was obvious. Reuters news agency warned in its annual report in February that Red Electrica’s owner, Red Electrica, faced risks “due to the high penetration of renewable energy without the technical capabilities needed to properly respond to the disturbance.” ”

Many observers did their best to point their fingers at alternative causes, but others were easier to identify the perpetrator.

Raúl Bajo Buenestado is a non-resident energy scientist at the Institute of Public Policy at Rice University in Houston. He received a Fulbright scholarship as a graduate student, and received a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education to a young researcher, earning his PhD. With economics from the US. Now he says, “He is primarily working on the power generation incentives and capacity markets in the power generation sector. He also does research into the gasoline retail market.” His online biography.

After studying the April 28 blackout data, Buenestado I’ve created an explanation Just minutes before the grid collapsed, “The renewable sources accounted for 78% of the Iberian Peninsula Grid System’s power generation, with the sun alone contributing nearly 60%. A windy day.”

“What sets the 28th April, however, stands out is that two consecutive generation loss events occur in southwestern Spain, likely to include large-scale solar power generation,” Buenestado said.

“The risk of massive blackouts in power systems with high renewable energy stakes is established. However, the Iberian blackout on April 28 will sharply focus these long-standing vulnerabilities,” Buenestado said. Unlike traditional power plants, solar and wind installations “rely rely on stable grids to function properly and cannot autonomously support grid stability during disturbances.”

President Biden before President Trump overturned the previous administration’s war with fossil fuels I violated the US To reach “100% clean electricity” by 2035 – a goal that seriously puts our own infrastructure at risk. Biden’s corresponding attack on affordable and reliable sources of energy like natural gas was unrealistic and unpopular with many consumers preferring gas appliances and heating sources to what is permitted under federal orders.

Similarly, Spain “is currently aiming to phase out fossil fuels and nuclear power generation in favour of renewable energy.” Under the plan.

It is illogical and impractical to insist on replacing affordable, reliable energy with more expensive and less reliable alternatives. Natural gas is the most cost-effective, reliable and still has the most cost-effective It’s getting even more beautiful World fuel choice.

Despite the Spanish government’s anti-legal fuel rhetoric, the US says it’s been recently Major supplier of liquefied natural gas to Spain. Much of Europe – mimicking the extremist climate change rhetoric – publicly condemns the continued production and use of traditional American energy. Gobbling at the same time.

Will the disaster of April 28th make European leaders think again to abandon our most reliable source of energy? It doesn’t seem like it will happen. Spain’s Prime Minister following a catastrophic blackout Pedro Sanchez said His government is not “departing a single millimeter” from plans to move to so-called renewable energy.

That’s a shame. It is worth noting that in the meantime, one of the main sources of energy used to restore electricity to millions of people in Spain, Portugal and lost power was one of the staff there claimed disgust. Natural gas.