On Monday, 28 April, Spain and Portugal suffered a crippling blackout.  What was the cause?

A maniacal, bare-chested Vladimir Putin, swimming underwater with a knife between his teeth, cutting ocean floor power cables?  No, it was not.

The psychotic pair of Donald Trump and J. D. Vance tossing anti-NATO hand grenades onto the power grid from a prototype F-47?  No, it was not.

Who is the culprit, then?

It is in fact the green energy promoting, climate saving crusaders of Spain.  Their replacement of electricity generation from hydrocarbon and nuclear plants with solar and wind generation has made the electricity grid unstable:

‘The inability of Spain’s electricity grid to manage an unusually high supply of solar power was a key factor in Monday’s catastrophic blackout, former regulators and experts have said.

‘About 55 per cent of Spain’s supply was from solar sources when 15GW of electricity generation disconnected from the grid within just five seconds on Monday afternoon, triggering a wide-ranging shutdown of power systems in Spain and Portugal.

‘Several European experts said that Spain appeared to lack enough firm power — readily available, reliable energy supply from sources such as fossil fuels or nuclear that can be reduced or raised — to kick in when the grid’s frequency dropped sharply at 12.33pm on Monday. Frequency, the rate at which electrical current alternates, must be kept stable for the grid to function.

‘ . . . André Merlin, the founder and former chief executive of France’s grid operator RTE, told the Financial Times: “Two-thirds of [Spain’s electricity] production was made up of non-controllable resources. These non-controllable resources . . . don’t contribute to the stability of the internal electrical system.”

‘ . . . Grid operators must constantly balance supply and demand of electricity to keep the frequency of the grid stable, and avoid damaging equipment or outages. This stability is easier to achieve with turbines powered by fossil fuels, hydroelectric or nuclear energy than with renewable technologies such as solar. Spain’s grid frequency dropped sharply below the optimal 50Hz rate at 12.33pm on Monday.

‘The reliance on solar energy at the time of the outage has led to criticisms of Red Eléctrica. Normally about a fifth of the country’s supply comes from solar power.

‘Sanz, a former adviser on the energy transition to the Spanish government, said that there was “poor management” of the grid, by not having enough nuclear, hydroelectric or fossil fuel energy scheduled to balance the system. Of the scheduled 26GW of electricity supply on Monday, just 5GW came from non-intermittent sources.

‘The Brussels-based adviser pointed to Red Eléctrica’s own 2024 annual report, which said that disconnections caused by “high renewable penetration” without enough “necessary technical capabilities for an adequate response to disturbances” was a risk to the system’ (Alice Hancock, Ian Johnston, Financial Times, ‘Spain and Portugal blackout blamed on solar power dependency,’ archive.is).

Like all fervent ideologues, however, the Spanish greens are loathe to admit that their faith is false:

‘Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica has said that it still does not know the exact cause of the outage. Chief executive Beatriz Corredor denied that renewables “made the system more vulnerable” in an interview with El País on Wednesday.

‘ . . . But she [Corredor] launched a stern defence of Spain’s renewable systems and pointed to unreliability of other energy sources, including nuclear. “[Renewables] are not insecure technologies. The proof is that the system operates with renewables every day . . . It’s not true that higher penetration of renewables has made the system more vulnerable” (Ibid.).

With such a stark warning staring us squarely in the face, surely Louisiana and her neighbors in Dixie would refuse to build massive solar and wind farms to generate electricity for homes, churches, businesses, etc., . . . right?

Wrong.

Morehouse Parish in Louisiana is running headlong into that ditch:

‘Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. and a global developer, owner and operator of solar and energy storage assets, held a tour and ribbon-cutting ceremony at Bayou Galion Solar, a 127 MWdc solar project located in northeastern Louisiana.

‘The project commenced operations in November 2024 in Morehouse Parish.

‘Solar energy investments in Louisiana are growing, driven by increasing demand for electricity from manufacturing and data centers. By the end of 2024, cumulative solar investment in Louisiana reached more than $2 billion’ (The Ouachita Citizen, ‘Recurrent Energy announces successful operation of solar project in Morehouse Parish,’ hannapub.com).

But Louisiana’s ‘investment’ in solar power is small change compared to other States in the South.  Contrast Louisiana’s 11 solar farms with the following:

• Florida – 174
• Georgia – 138
• Maryland – 160
• North Carolina – 754
• Texas – 437

(Source:  Craig Kaiser, LandApp, ‘How Many Solar Farms Does Each State Have?,’ landapp.com)

These numbers are similar to those of Leftist States in Yankeedom like Massachusetts (528) and New York (485), which is a cause for alarm, not for celebration, as our neighbors to the North are not generally known for logical and rational thinking in recent years.

Small-scale solar and wind power generation, distributed across large areas via roofs, backyards, etc., of homes and businesses and the like, as a way to help those folks become more self-sufficient and lower their power bills, is a good idea.  But highly concentrated ‘farms’ that overwhelm the power grid with electricity one minute while leaving it bare the next (when a cloud hides the sun or the wind stops blowing) are quite the opposite.

Hopefully it will not take a catastrophic blackout of our own here in the States before we implement the lessons learned from Spain’s green energy crusade.