Spain's power outage sparks debate on nuclear energy phase-out amid renewable push
As people wait for answers about what caused the historic power cut, which abruptly disrupted tens of millions of lives, some are questioning the wisdom of decommissioning nuclear reactors that provide a stable, if controversial, form of energy compared to renewables, whose output can be intermittent.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has rejected such criticism, asking for patience while the government investigates what caused the grid's disconnection. He said that his government would not 'deviate a single millimeter' from its energy transition plans.
Here's what to know about the energy debate:
What is nuclear power and why is it controversial? Nuclear power is a zero-carbon energy source formed from nuclear fission, when the nuclei of atoms are split into two or several parts, releasing energy.
It accounts for about 10 per cent of electricity generation worldwide, according to the International Energy Association.
Many countries consider nuclear power critical to reaching their net-zero goals. But while nuclear reactors do not emit planet-warming greenhouse gases like gas- or coal-fired power plants, they produce radioactive waste that even advanced economies have struggled to dispose.
Why does Spain want to decommission its nuclear reactors? Spain generated nearly 57 per cent of its electricity in 2024 from renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower and solar, according to Red Electrica, the country's grid operator. About 20 per cent came from nuclear power plants.
In 2019, Sanchez's government approved a plan to decommission the country's remaining nuclear reactors between 2027 and 2035 as it expands its share of renewable energy even further. The country aims to generate 81 per cent of its electricity by 2030 from renewable sources.
Sanchez on Wednesday said that the four nuclear facilities that were online the day of the blackout did not help re-power the grid.
Batteries and other methods help regulate changes in electricity supply from wind and solar.
Why is Spain's renewables push being questioned now? While the cause of the sudden outage on April 28 is still unknown, the event has raised questions about the technical challenges facing electricity grids running on high levels of solar and wind.
Solar and wind provided roughly 70 per cent of the electricity on the grid moments before Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity - about 60 per cent of its supply - in just five seconds.
Electricity grids were designed for a different era, according to Gilles Thonet, deputy secretary general of the International Electrotechnical Commission, an industry group.
'Traditionally, power flowed in one direction: from large coal, gas or nuclear plants to homes and businesses,' Thonet said. 'These plants provided not only electricity, but also stability. Their spinning turbines acted like shock absorbers, smoothing out fluctuations in supply and demand.'
In the days following the blackout, Google searches in Spain for 'nuclear' spiked, according to data from Google Trends.
Spain's nuclear lobby group Foro Nuclear said this week that the government should rethink its plan to decommission its nuclear reactors after the outage. Ignacio Araluce, its president, said the nuclear plants online before the outage 'provide firmness and stability.'
Would more nuclear power have prevented a blackout? Others say it is too soon to draw conclusions about what role nuclear energy should play.
'We do not know the cause of the oscillations,' said Pedro Fresco, director general of Avaesen, an association of renewable energy and clean technology firms in Valencia. 'Therefore, we do not know what would have allowed them to be controlled.'
Spain's grid operator last week narrowed down the source of the outage to two separate incidents in which substations in southwestern Spain failed.
Environment Minister Sara Aagesen said earlier this week that the grid had initially withstood another power generation outage in southern Spain 19 seconds before the blackout.
Sanchez in his speech to Parliament said there was 'no empirical evidence' to show that more nuclear power on the grid could have prevented a blackout or allowed the country to get back online faster. In fact, the four nuclear facilities online on April 28 before the blackout were taken offline after the outage as part of emergency protocol to avoid overheating.
He said that nuclear energy 'has not been shown to be an effective solution in situations like what we experienced on April 28,' and called the debate surrounding his government's nuclear phase-out plan 'a gigantic manipulation.'
Gas and hydropower, as well as electricity transfers from Morocco and France, were used to get the country's grid back online.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
ICE barred from racial profiling in Los Angeles sweeps
Representative image A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a temporary order barring US immigration authorities from stopping people for questioning without cause, the latest fallout from the Trump administration's controversial crackdown on migrants. A temporary restraining order sought by a group of Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups was granted Friday by US district judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. The judge barred agents in the Los Angeles area from stopping and questioning individuals without reasonable suspicion that they're in the US illegally. The order forbids the agents from basing their suspicion on race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish, speaking English with an accent, the type of the work they do or where they are located. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the department of homeland security, said "a district judge is undermining the will of the Americans." The groups argued that officials "must have an objective, particularized basis" to believe that a person is in the US illegally before they can stop them and require they answer questions. To do otherwise, they alleged, amounts to illegal racial profiling.
Mint
12 hours ago
- Mint
Judge Blocks ICE From Racial Profiling in LA Migrant Sweeps
(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in Los Angeles issued an order temporarily blocking US authorities from using racial or ethnic profiling during immigration sweeps in the region and requiring that detainees get access to lawyers. The order Friday by US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong is the latest fallout from the Trump administration's controversial crackdown on migrants in California and across the US. It came in a lawsuit by a group of Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups who accused President Donald Trump's administration of terrorizing the population with heavy handed and unconstitutional tactics. 'Today's historic ruling means the federal government cannot fence off the Constitution from Los Angeles and surrounding communities,' said Mark Rosenbaum, a senior lawyer at Public Counsel, which represents the plaintiffs. 'The question now for our federal government is whether it is prepared to conduct its operations under the rule of law. To date, the answer has been no.' The judge said she will hold a hearing later on the groups' request for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction that would block the alleged conduct while the lawsuit proceeds, which could take months or longer. The judge barred agents in the Los Angeles area from stopping and questioning individuals without reasonable suspicion that they're in the US illegally. The order forbids the agents from basing their suspicion on race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish, speaking English with an accent, the type of the work they do or where they are located. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said 'a district judge is undermining the will of the American people.' 'America's brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists — truly the worst of the worst — from Golden State communities,' she said in an emailed statement. 'Law and order will prevail.' The government didn't provide evidence in the case that the people being detained in the area had committed such crimes. The order by Frimpong, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, is a rebuke to the administration's raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in public spaces to make mass arrests. It comes as a wide swath of the most populous state's Democratic elected officials, from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to Governor Gavin Newsom, have slammed the Trump administration over its alleged conduct. The disputed tactics include using National Guard troops to protect ICE agents during immigration sweeps and deploying US Marines in downtown Los Angeles to help quell protests, both of which triggered separate lawsuits. But the targeting of suspected migrants by masked and armed immigration agents has been a focal point of Democratic criticism. 'Armed to the hilt, masked, and driving unmarked cars, they have adopted a central strategy of grabbing people first and asking questions later,' the groups said in their request for a restraining order. Trump has argued that his tactics are in line with the president's constitutional authority to carry out immigration policy and that voters elected him to follow through on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump has frequently portrayed migrants as criminals who pose a threat to Americans, but court records show many law-abiding noncitizens have been swept up across the country. The groups that sued in Los Angeles, the second-largest US metropolitan area and a focal point of Trump's effort, argued in court filings that federal immigration agents are violating the Constitution by conducting stops 'without reasonable suspicion' that the individuals were in the US illegally. The agents are trying to meet 'an arbitrary quota for 3,000 daily arrests imposed by the White House,' the groups said. 'But while defendants may believe that immigration enforcement can be a numbers game, the Fourth Amendment requires that seizures be reasonable,' they said in a filing. The filings cite detailed examples of alleged wrongdoing by federal agents, including a man who says he was 'grabbed' at a car wash and interrogated by agents who knew 'nothing more at the time than that he had brown skin and was present at the car wash.' Another man, a plaintiff in the suit, was detained at a tow yard where he was working on his car. 'He told them he was American, but they violently persisted in their questioning, demanding that he tell him what hospital he was born in, and only let him go after he showed them his Real ID, for which they had not even asked,' according to the filing. The plaintiffs argue that 'roving patrols' targeting day laborers, street vendors, farm workers and other were 'expressly directed' by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who told high level officials at ICE to 'just go out there and arrest' unauthorized noncitizens by rounding them up in public spaces like 'Home Depot' and '7-Eleven' stores, according to court filings. The groups allege that similar racial profiling has been underway at raids in agricultural sites, bus stops, packing houses and churches. Newsom praised Friday's ruling, saying 'justice prevailed,' while Bass said it affirms 'the Constitution, American values and decency.' --With assistance from Robert Burnson and Anthony Aarons. (Updates with comments by plaintiffs starting in third paragraph) More stories like this are available on
Mint
15 hours ago
- Mint
Trump tariffs: How Germany, France, Spain reacted to 30% rate threat; Macron calls on EU to ‘defend European interests'
US President Donald Trump on Saturday intensified the tariff trade war even further by threatening to impose a 30 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1. In an escalation of the trade war that has angered US allies and rattled investors, Trump announced the latest tariffs in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum posted on Truth Social. Both the EU and Mexico responded by calling the tariffs unfair and disruptive while pledging to continue to negotiate with the US for a broader trade deal before the August deadline. According to an AFP report, French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned Trump's threat to impose 30 per cent tariffs on the European Union, calling on the bloc to "resolutely defend European interests". Expressing France's "very strong disapproval" of the announcement, Macron called on the bloc to "step up the preparation of credible countermeasures by mobilising all instruments at its disposal" if the two sides failed to reach agreement by August 1. "France fully supports the European Commission in the negotiation that will intensify to reach a mutually acceptable agreement by August 1, so that it reflects the respect that trade partners such as the European Union and the United States owe each other," he wrote on social media. The European Union "remains firm, united and ready to protect (its) interests". 'Tariffs are taxes. They fuel inflation, create uncertainty and hinder economic growth. We will continue to build strong trade partnerships worldwide,' European Council President Antonio Costa said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the tariffs unjustified. "Economic openness and trade create prosperity. Unjustified tariffs destroy it. That is why we support and will support the Commission in its negotiations to reach an agreement with the US before August 1," he said. Germany's economy minister called for pragmaticism in European Union tariff negotiations with the United States. "The EU now must, in the time that remains, negotiate in a pragmatic manner a solution with the United States," Germany's economy minister Katherina Reiche said in a statement. "A pragmatic outcome to these negotiations must be reached quickly," she said. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU will take all necessary steps to safeguard its interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required. "The EU has consistently prioritised a negotiated solution with the US, reflecting our commitment to dialogue, stability, and a constructive transatlantic partnership. 'We remain ready to continue working towards an agreement by August 1. At the same time, we will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required,' she said. Mexico slammed Trump's latest threat of 30 per cent tariffs on Saturday as an "unfair deal," according to a government statement. Mexico was informed of the new duties – which Trump said would come into effect by August 1 – during talks in the United States on Friday, an AFP report said. "We mentioned at the table that it was an unfair deal and that we did not agree," the Mexican economy and foreign ministries said in a joint statement. Mexico is already in negotiations seeking an alternative to tariffs that would protect businesses and jobs on both sides of the border, the ministries added, saying they hope to avoid the duties. Mexico is one of the countries most vulnerable to the Republican leader's tariffs, with 80 per cent of its exports destined for the United States, its largest trading partner, the report added.
