Spain’s electricity supply went down last month due to cascading failures traced to faults in two solar plants in Spain’s southwest region, causing a blackout on the Iberian Peninsula. Americans should not be complacent, because the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit international regulatory authority, has warned that it might happen in the United States.
On April 28, the day of the Spanish meltdown, solar provided 59% of electricity, wind about 12%, and nuclear and gas approximately 22%. When the two solar plants went down insufficient backup, or inertia, was available to keep the system going.
The sun shines and the wind blows for free, but providing electricity to people with intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar, is more difficult than with baseload power, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.
The North…
