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> Even Spain now runs some coal despite having near-100% renewable grid for a year. In fact Spain has less coal now than it did in 2025, or 2024, or 2023 and s

> Even Spain now runs some coal despite having near-100% renewable grid for a year. In fact Spain has less coal now than it did in 2025, or 2024, or 2023 and so on. And no their grid isn't "near 100% renewable", they do have a lot more than most European countries but they have large gas imports too to run some of their conventional thermal power plants - what they're getting rid of, sensibly, is coal. There's a 4x seasonal swing between summer and winter for Spain's solar power, and obviously the maximal swing (clear summer's day versus overcast mid-winter) is much larger, but they're nowhere close to being rid of fossil fuels even in July, much less January. This whole "blackout was caused by renewables" stuff was crap when it was first spouted and didn't get any more plausible once we had more information.

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ricardobayes 3mo ago
No, I agree renewables didn't cause the blackout themselves. Spain due to not having hydro power had to use renewables that were inverter-based and didn't have rotating mass to dampen any oscillations. The Entso-E report said there was a direct consequence between not having this inertia and the resulting blackout. There is absolutely nothing wrong with renewables themselves, although it also has to be said if they never used renewables or not to this extent, this event simply wouldn't have occurred.
- tialaramex 3mo ago
  > The Entso-E report said there was a direct consequence between not having this inertia and the resulting blackout That isn't what it said > if they never used renewables or not to this extent, this event simply wouldn't have occurred This is an entirely speculative counter-factual and so is even more useless than it appears.
  - ricardobayes 3mo ago
    Yes, I see that now. That excerpt I took paraphrasing a google summary which apparently used a youtube video as its source. But I see it now it's not true, thanks. However I do stand by the part where I said if renewables were never used this likely wouldn't have happened - even though, as you say, it is a useless argument.

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ricardobayes 3mo ago

No, I agree renewables didn't cause the blackout themselves. Spain due to not having hydro power had to use renewables that were inverter-based and didn't have rotating mass to dampen any oscillations. The Entso-E report said there was a direct consequence between not having this inertia and the resulting blackout. There is absolutely nothing wrong with renewables themselves, although it also has to be said if they never used renewables or not to this extent, this event simply wouldn't have occurred.

tialaramex 3mo ago
> The Entso-E report said there was a direct consequence between not having this inertia and the resulting blackout That isn't what it said > if they never used renewables or not to this extent, this event simply wouldn't have occurred This is an entirely speculative counter-factual and so is even more useless than it appears.
- ricardobayes 3mo ago
  Yes, I see that now. That excerpt I took paraphrasing a google summary which apparently used a youtube video as its source. But I see it now it's not true, thanks. However I do stand by the part where I said if renewables were never used this likely wouldn't have happened - even though, as you say, it is a useless argument.