willmathis.bsky.social
Reporter at Bloomberg covering energy and climate change. Opinions are my own.
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Prolific Poster
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It turns out that this wasn’t correct, but based on inaccurate data published by the grid operator. All generation shut off
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I don't think they do have synchronous condensers on the peninsula. I know they've done some synchronous condenser stuff on the Canary Islands, but as far as I have learned, there are no synchronous condensers on mainland Spain.
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It seems to me like there were at least three frequency oscillation events that the grid handled well before the grid broke. So I wonder if they had run out of tools to stabilize the grid after so many issues in a relatively short period
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And they, specifically the one he’s invested in Helion, have been saying that for years only to then push back expected commercialization.
In the meantime actual power grids are relying more on coal and gas to fuel AI growth.
Helion in 2014 saying they’d be commercial by 2020: t.co/4WX1OTqlNk
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Delays to subsidies in the US and EU haven’t helped. But that’s only part of the story. Developers have now progressed through detailed engineering and design studies and found that’s it’s more expensive than they thought to build plants. BNEF increased its cost estimate 56% for EU/US since 2022:
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Use more than they produce?
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That’s fair, but to equate the situation in the UK to Germany is very off. Germany shut off nukes for political reasons while the UK is keeping its plants as long as they can.
UK has struggled to build new plants, but not because politicians are ideologically opposed. Just opposed to paying maybe