The Columbia River Basin remains a vital artery for America’s energy and agricultural future. To gamble that away on the basis of activist pressure and incomplete science would be not…
Category: The Grid
New York Electric Power Trends
Ultimately the problem is that New York has no comprehensive energy plan. The Climate Act Scoping Plan is just a list of technologies that describe an electric system that is…
Why “cheaper” wind and solar raise costs. Part III: The problem with power markets
Subsidizing new industry may be a social good, but it’s critical to recognize that market choice didn’t reduce overall costs—it only changed who benefited, reshaping how the pie was divided.…
Kathryn Porter on British Thought Leaders
The problem that we had in Britain on the 8th of January was we nearly just ran out of electricity. We didn’t have enough available generation to meet demand. So,…
Blackouts Surge: How Fragile Grids Threaten Global Energy Security
We need to be honest with ourselves… wind and solar alone can’t provide energy security. Not today. Maybe not ever without massive redesigns. We have leaned too hard on brittle…
Spain Boosts Natural Gas Capacity After Renewable Energy’s Failure Led to Historic Blackout
Now, in the aftermath of this blackout that could have been much worse, Spain has significantly increased its reliance on natural gas-fired power plants to stabilize its electricity grid. This strategic shift…
NERC’s latest reliability assessment is unreliable
If NERC is assuming major solar and wind output to meet peak need, their findings are ridiculously unreliable. The combination of using wind and solar with merely average conditions makes…
Blackouts as Bliss? Why Some Celebrate Power Outages as a Return to ‘Connection’
LA-based climate campaigner Michael Mezzatesta, self-described economics and climate educator, has a new one for the climate debate: blackouts are good, bringing us together! He states:
New Texas Law to Force Renewables to Be Dispatchable
Sounds like Texas is getting fed up with its electricity system being increasingly put at risk by wind and solar power. After years of papering over the cracks with half…
European Blackout Update (yes, it was solar)
“Could the reliability of the Iberian Peninsula grid be ensured by introducing new technical solutions? Technically, yes—but economically, the feasibility is more challenging.” ( – J.K. Nøland, below)
Expert Assessment Warns Expansion Of Wind And Solar Energy Jeopardizing French Power Grid Stability
The French are finding out that combining nuclear power with unstable wind and sun is not a good idea and is a risk to the power grid. Spain recently had…
Inertia in One Lesson (Dave Edwards on LinkedIn)
“The challenge with rising renewables: As power systems rely more on asynchronous generation, frequency changes can occur much faster, increasing the risk of grid instability.” (- Dave Edwards_
Live at 1 p.m. ET: The Pain in Spain Is Renewably Insane – The Climate Realism Show #155
In mid-April, Spain’s socialist government bragged that, for the first time, the nation was powered by 100 percent “renewable” energy—mostly solar and wind. One week later, Spain, Portugal, parts of…
Have The Intermittent Energy Blackouts Begun?
As Schellenberger points out, with just “a hair” more frequency variation it could have been far worse. Will that happen some time soon? I’m not going to pretend I know.…
Spanish Grid Operator Warned of Nation’s Heavy Reliance on Renewable Energy in February
Investigations into the cause of the power outage are continuing. However, a great deal of focus is turning to a pair of solar power plants that appeared to have issues…
Net Zero Watch warns of growing grid instability
With more than 50 million EU electricity consumers suffering blackouts yesterday, campaign group Net Zero Watch has reiterated its warning that the UK power grid is also becoming increasingly unstable.
Congrats to Spain! Nation goes 100% renewable as of April 16th 2025! – But…Then Mass Blackouts Hit Spain, Portugal
Spain and Portugal, both of which generate a majority of their electricity with renewables, were simultaneously hit by widespread power outages on Monday, with no explanation immediately forthcoming about the…
The Looming Electricity Crunch Facing The US
“Six major U.S. grid operators have raised a unified alarm about an impending capacity crunch, warning that the pace and scale of explosive demand—including from data centers, manufacturing, and electrification—poses…
FERC Finally Wakes Up
Let me commend FERC for finally engaging on the crucial issue of how we might be able to power the data centers which will be essential to the United States’…