Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

On 10/06/2025 7:30 am, chrisq wrote:

On 6/9/25 15:25, Bill Sloman wrote:

On 10/06/2025 12:14 am, Joe Gwinn wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jun 2025 17:16:09 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:
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On Sun, 08 Jun 2025 19:15:57 -0400, Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@comcast.net>
wrote:
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The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout, Bjorn Lomborg, Wall Street
Journal, 3 June 2025 issue, page A13.
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Here is a gift link.  No paywall, but they will insist on trying to
persuade you to subscribe.
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.<https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-physics-behind-the-spanish- blackout-solar-and-wind-power-unstable-grid-8be54b2a? st=VUVUMR&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink>
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Joe

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What's net zero is the line voltage. The issue is partly spinning
mass, but more important is gross gigawatts available on bad
afternoons.
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Another time bomb is that (cheap) solar panels and inverters and
batteries don't last as long as is assumed in payback calculations. In
10 or 15 years there will be an enormous disposal problem. And lots of
leaky roofs.

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Yep.  And given the likely end of the mandates and subsidies,
replacement may prove expensive, making the business case less
attractive.

>
Twaddle. Solar panels and wind turbines are the cheapest sources of electricity available - certainly for Australia and Spain.
>

 You really need to ease up on the Koolaid, tastes nice, but short
term benefit.

In the same way that burning lots of fossil carbon is a short term solution to the problem of supplying electric power

Just how long do you think the battery farms will last under constant
charge / discharge cycling, and how much will it cost to replace them ?
Complete fools errand, but i''m sure the salesman must have been quite
persuasive :-).

Like everything else. batteries wear out under constant use, just like the coal-fired generators that used to power our grid.
This does get figured into the economics, at least if they are worked out by people with more sense than you seem to have.
--
Bill Sloman, Sydney