Thank you for this article, Doomie. Solar, wind, and battery advocates have worked overtime to prevent decision-makers from seeing the folly of excess inverter-based-resources associated with the 28 April 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout.
Veteran electric generation insider Brad Panike and I collaborated to produce a new Substack article demonstrating how Diablo Canyon protects the Edmonston Pumping Station (EPS.) The EPS pumps huge quantities of life-sustaining California Water Project water over the Tehachapi Mountains into southern California. The title of the 31 May 2026 article is, "When the Lights Went Out in Spain — And Why California Should Pay Attention" https://kilovar1959.substack.com/cp/200008271
After you have read the article and the lively comments, we request that you consider updating your 14 June 2025 Sunblock article. The core issue is that the laws of physics are indifferent to California legislative mandates. Californians for Green Nuclear Power is working hard with a coalition of business and environmental groups to enact California legislation this year which will permit Diablo Canyon to run to 2045 instead of 2030. On 2 April 2026, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a federal license renewal to 2045 for Diablo Canyon.
Yes, if there is ever a blackout in California or some such, Gavin and the media will blame Trump. And the solution will be more renewables not less. Brawndo has electrolytes, etc etc.
Disappointing that Musk continues at full speed to make utopian claims about solar and battery storage despite these highly visible problems and reversals. His thinking seems to be that if it’s likely all global energy might come from PV solar in say, 3000 years, it is appropriate to announce same as if it could be next month.
The ignorance that permeates Sacramento and the do good Dems is never ending. They are now proposing to reduce the crediting rate PG&E pays for solar which is sent to the grid by homeowners.
You are spot on about batteries. They are the only way out of the cluster-f*** California has produced. The scale is unthinkable, as is the cost. It can’t happen and it won’t happen.
Another effect of giving away huge amounts of solar power is it makes the surrounding states fossil plants less economic. The very power plants California relies on for 20% of its power are being done in by solar.
90% of the projects in the California interconnection queue are scheduled to come online 2029 to 3035. If the massive grid upgrade is finished on time😂. Can’t wait to see what happens when the BBB passes.
Good article on the utter failure of California energy policies. I do not think anything will change with the current leadership and with voting systems the way they are - that is unlikely to change in the future. Basically, a total black-out may cause some changes but would more likely be blamed on orangeman for some silly reason. Maybe a major earthquake would help.
Thank you. nonprofit CPUC Intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. https://cgnp.org/ is working to develop the record in advance of the likely California blackout. We've had to fight to be a Party in some relevant recent Proceedings. CGNP is also working to educate California legislators via Sacramento, California visits.
Watch for CGNP's upcoming article on this topic in their GreenNUKE Substack. https://greennuke.substack.com/ In the mean time, please read CGNP's most popular article from over a year ago on March 4, 2024, "Why is Grid Inertia Important? Without sufficient synchronous grid inertia (SGI,) the grid becomes unstable and a blackout occurs."
The comments include reference to additional technical details such as a 2018 ERCOT paper showing the importance of adequate SGI for the Texas grid and a summary of our findings in the Helms Pumped Storage Proceeding before the CPUC.
Thanks for the link. The engineers that run China understand the importance of grid frequency stability and 24/7 reliability. China annually consumers more coal than the rest of the world combined. Some of that coal is used in variations on the Fischer - Tropsch process to make petrochemicals from coal. Communist China wants to possess olefin supply to manufacture plastics independent of what they currently purchase from the U.S.
Thank you. Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) is working on a new article with the working title, "How California's Electricity Policies are Emulating Spain's - Both Entities are Discouraging Nuclear Power." Watch for it at CGNP's GreenNUKE Substack https://greennuke.substack.com/
Wow, what a bunch of ding-a-lings. I guess the Moss Landing snafu was accomplished by someone attaching the red cable to the negative terminal and vice versa (BOOM!). Maybe they should hook up 10 million AA batteries and try that. 🤣
Interesting essay, Doomy. Another thumbs up. 👍 Just to show that California does not have a lock on all the idiots in the energy sector, here is a story about two homeowners who drilled for natural gas in their backyard in southwest Houston back in 2014 - not far from where I used to live. Can you believe it? 🫨 🤣 It's hilarious. You need to read the story. I came across it while scrolling through an oil and gas investment forum.
Regarding your hypothesis Paleocat, please see, "A Net-Zero Chernobyl: California Battery Fire Releases Tons of Carcinogenic Metals and Toxic Gases - Toxic materials blanket communities, farms, and a sensitive estuary" February 8, 2025, Tuco's Child Substack. https://tucoschild.substack.com/cp/156758772
The fire is likely connected with lithium-ion cell aging, poor plant design and maintenance, and thermal runaway inherent to giant 100 MW - 400 MWh lithium ion battery plants such as Moss Landing.phase II.
____________
P.S. regarding your 2014 article, here's a comment posted yesterday on LinkedIn:
2P is one of the best satire sites in the patch. Like a Canadian Babylon Bee for O&G.
From the about page for 2P: Welcome to 2P News (2pnews.com), 2P News is a newspaper-themed blog that publishes original satirical articles focused on the oil and gas industry and working in downtown Calgary in general.
We also publish articles set in other major oil and gas hubs including Houston, Texas. But to be quite honest, our scope is not only international, but intergalactic.
This site was created by a number of downtown Calgary oil and gas professionals who like to share their observations on working in the patch. In Q3 2015 2P News opened a virtual office in Houston, Texas, because the low Canadian dollar enabled us to be funnier down there.....
Back in my paper industry days in which I was tasked to see if there was any validity to solar or wind or tidal etc the answer like anything resides in $$$$$. in use today (or they were supposed to be) are controls based programs that distribute electrons based on cost and if the regulatory commission of Ca knows what it is doing it needs to say go to Cal Tech and have that program do the simple I maximize or I minimize algebra by minute by hour by day by week by month by year. what is also needed is to have what is termed "peaker stations" which are typically Nat Gas driven that can start in basically an instant (cannot do that with coal or wind etc). In lieu of that, you provide incentives to keep large boilers base loaded (33% of rated capacity) inc nuc. as for (if any) excess electrons there are only two cost effective ways of addressing this. First put in a giant flywheel or flywheels or a bank of really big batteries. there was a third and that is to build a water impoundment (like what was near Ludington, Mi) where in dump power was used to pump water into the impoundment during the night and the water ran out through turbines during the day. for starters politicians need to understand the following: Physics works and energy flow downhill and friction is not your friend. one last thing, the capacity of the batteries or the fly wheels needs to be at minimum 1.2 times the system demand and the system flow or it will fail. 'nuff said
Thank you for this article, Doomie. Solar, wind, and battery advocates have worked overtime to prevent decision-makers from seeing the folly of excess inverter-based-resources associated with the 28 April 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout.
Veteran electric generation insider Brad Panike and I collaborated to produce a new Substack article demonstrating how Diablo Canyon protects the Edmonston Pumping Station (EPS.) The EPS pumps huge quantities of life-sustaining California Water Project water over the Tehachapi Mountains into southern California. The title of the 31 May 2026 article is, "When the Lights Went Out in Spain — And Why California Should Pay Attention" https://kilovar1959.substack.com/cp/200008271
After you have read the article and the lively comments, we request that you consider updating your 14 June 2025 Sunblock article. The core issue is that the laws of physics are indifferent to California legislative mandates. Californians for Green Nuclear Power is working hard with a coalition of business and environmental groups to enact California legislation this year which will permit Diablo Canyon to run to 2045 instead of 2030. On 2 April 2026, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a federal license renewal to 2045 for Diablo Canyon.
Yes, if there is ever a blackout in California or some such, Gavin and the media will blame Trump. And the solution will be more renewables not less. Brawndo has electrolytes, etc etc.
Disappointing that Musk continues at full speed to make utopian claims about solar and battery storage despite these highly visible problems and reversals. His thinking seems to be that if it’s likely all global energy might come from PV solar in say, 3000 years, it is appropriate to announce same as if it could be next month.
Batteries on fire on land and water. Seems battery fires are impossible to put out!
https://youtu.be/IZi4R1wf81E?si=0xlDSYalTaSAyfYI
The ignorance that permeates Sacramento and the do good Dems is never ending. They are now proposing to reduce the crediting rate PG&E pays for solar which is sent to the grid by homeowners.
You are spot on about batteries. They are the only way out of the cluster-f*** California has produced. The scale is unthinkable, as is the cost. It can’t happen and it won’t happen.
Another effect of giving away huge amounts of solar power is it makes the surrounding states fossil plants less economic. The very power plants California relies on for 20% of its power are being done in by solar.
90% of the projects in the California interconnection queue are scheduled to come online 2029 to 3035. If the massive grid upgrade is finished on time😂. Can’t wait to see what happens when the BBB passes.
Thank you for covering that absurd KPBS article.
https://www.greenleapforward.wtf/p/fudging-the-costs-of-diablo?utm_source=publication-search
Good article on the utter failure of California energy policies. I do not think anything will change with the current leadership and with voting systems the way they are - that is unlikely to change in the future. Basically, a total black-out may cause some changes but would more likely be blamed on orangeman for some silly reason. Maybe a major earthquake would help.
Thank you. nonprofit CPUC Intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. https://cgnp.org/ is working to develop the record in advance of the likely California blackout. We've had to fight to be a Party in some relevant recent Proceedings. CGNP is also working to educate California legislators via Sacramento, California visits.
Watch for CGNP's upcoming article on this topic in their GreenNUKE Substack. https://greennuke.substack.com/ In the mean time, please read CGNP's most popular article from over a year ago on March 4, 2024, "Why is Grid Inertia Important? Without sufficient synchronous grid inertia (SGI,) the grid becomes unstable and a blackout occurs."
https://greennuke.substack.com/p/why-is-grid-inertia-important
The comments include reference to additional technical details such as a 2018 ERCOT paper showing the importance of adequate SGI for the Texas grid and a summary of our findings in the Helms Pumped Storage Proceeding before the CPUC.
This reminds me that obesity is actually a form of malnutrition.
Very nice chart showing how “green” China really is. It is Coal 24/7……everything else is just window dressing. https://t.co/xuZseOg8QN
Thanks for the link. The engineers that run China understand the importance of grid frequency stability and 24/7 reliability. China annually consumers more coal than the rest of the world combined. Some of that coal is used in variations on the Fischer - Tropsch process to make petrochemicals from coal. Communist China wants to possess olefin supply to manufacture plastics independent of what they currently purchase from the U.S.
FAFO.
In light of the recent Iberian black-out, I would agree that not even a crisis will turn California around.
Thank you. Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) is working on a new article with the working title, "How California's Electricity Policies are Emulating Spain's - Both Entities are Discouraging Nuclear Power." Watch for it at CGNP's GreenNUKE Substack https://greennuke.substack.com/
Wow, what a bunch of ding-a-lings. I guess the Moss Landing snafu was accomplished by someone attaching the red cable to the negative terminal and vice versa (BOOM!). Maybe they should hook up 10 million AA batteries and try that. 🤣
Interesting essay, Doomy. Another thumbs up. 👍 Just to show that California does not have a lock on all the idiots in the energy sector, here is a story about two homeowners who drilled for natural gas in their backyard in southwest Houston back in 2014 - not far from where I used to live. Can you believe it? 🫨 🤣 It's hilarious. You need to read the story. I came across it while scrolling through an oil and gas investment forum.
https://www.2pnews.com/2014/06/12/houston-area-man-drills-well-in-backyard-charges-laid/
Worlds largest welder.
Regarding your hypothesis Paleocat, please see, "A Net-Zero Chernobyl: California Battery Fire Releases Tons of Carcinogenic Metals and Toxic Gases - Toxic materials blanket communities, farms, and a sensitive estuary" February 8, 2025, Tuco's Child Substack. https://tucoschild.substack.com/cp/156758772
The fire is likely connected with lithium-ion cell aging, poor plant design and maintenance, and thermal runaway inherent to giant 100 MW - 400 MWh lithium ion battery plants such as Moss Landing.phase II.
____________
P.S. regarding your 2014 article, here's a comment posted yesterday on LinkedIn:
2P is one of the best satire sites in the patch. Like a Canadian Babylon Bee for O&G.
From the about page for 2P: Welcome to 2P News (2pnews.com), 2P News is a newspaper-themed blog that publishes original satirical articles focused on the oil and gas industry and working in downtown Calgary in general.
We also publish articles set in other major oil and gas hubs including Houston, Texas. But to be quite honest, our scope is not only international, but intergalactic.
This site was created by a number of downtown Calgary oil and gas professionals who like to share their observations on working in the patch. In Q3 2015 2P News opened a virtual office in Houston, Texas, because the low Canadian dollar enabled us to be funnier down there.....
You mean it ain't real? It's gotta be - it was on the Internet! Well, it should be. I only post'em - it's someone else's job to fact check'em. 😂
Actually, the comments following the story are more entertaining where many are claiming that it ain't real.
Your closing comment about Orangemanbad and shovels is not only accurate, it’s the most important part of your analysis.
People make stupid mistakes all the time. When it’s driven by dogma, the dogma keeps reality from teaching us the real lessons.
Orangemanbad + green dogma means CA will refuse to learn from the mistakes made.
That’s a bigger and longer term problem.
Too many in the public bank account (stealing) for freebies, Everything can be green these days and get a grant. Gotta stop somehow sometime.
Back in my paper industry days in which I was tasked to see if there was any validity to solar or wind or tidal etc the answer like anything resides in $$$$$. in use today (or they were supposed to be) are controls based programs that distribute electrons based on cost and if the regulatory commission of Ca knows what it is doing it needs to say go to Cal Tech and have that program do the simple I maximize or I minimize algebra by minute by hour by day by week by month by year. what is also needed is to have what is termed "peaker stations" which are typically Nat Gas driven that can start in basically an instant (cannot do that with coal or wind etc). In lieu of that, you provide incentives to keep large boilers base loaded (33% of rated capacity) inc nuc. as for (if any) excess electrons there are only two cost effective ways of addressing this. First put in a giant flywheel or flywheels or a bank of really big batteries. there was a third and that is to build a water impoundment (like what was near Ludington, Mi) where in dump power was used to pump water into the impoundment during the night and the water ran out through turbines during the day. for starters politicians need to understand the following: Physics works and energy flow downhill and friction is not your friend. one last thing, the capacity of the batteries or the fly wheels needs to be at minimum 1.2 times the system demand and the system flow or it will fail. 'nuff said
So well said! Taking away their shovels is also good father's day advice.