blackout

the EU’s plan to survive China’s mineral blackout

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The clock of global geopolitics has begun to count down the minutes for the European Union. In an unprecedented move that certifies the end of frictionless globalization, Brussels is finalizing the details of what will be its first major strategic “bunker” of critical minerals. As advanced Reutersthe EU has already selected the materials that will inaugurate this joint reserve: tungsten, rare earths and gallium. Magnesium, germanium and graphite could soon be added to this initial list. A firm step. The initiative of the community bloc is not a coincidence; It is its last great asset to shield its economy against the crushing dominance of Beijing in the production of elements that today are the oxygen of modernity. We are not talking about simple raw materials; We talk about vital components for the defense industry, semiconductors and the energy transition. In fact, almost all of these minerals—with the exception of magnesium—are on the list of the 12 elements. considered critical by NATO for military production. Without them, it is impossible to manufacture everything from armor-piercing ammunition that uses tungsten, to the latest generation radars and combat aircraft that depend on gallium arsenide and gallium nitride. The urgency lies in the data. According to a wrecker report of the European Court of AuditorsEurope is addicted to Chinese minerals: the Asian giant supplies 97% of the magnesium consumed by the EU, refines more than 80% of the planet’s rare earths and controls an overwhelming 98% of the world’s gallium refining capacity. The level of dependency is such that Europe flagrantly fails to comply with its own security threshold, which establishes not depending on a single country for more than 65% for the processing phase. But why step on the accelerator now? The response is dated on the calendar: June 15, 2026. As explained Xinhuaon that day the new regulations of China’s Mineral Resources Law come into force. These regulations will give Beijing absolute power to determine total production caps, restrict which entities can operate mines and, most worryingly for the West, subject any foreign investment in the sector to national security reviews. So how will this logistics shield be built? Moving from intent documents to operational reality requires massive infrastructures. As confirmed Reutersthe European Union is already in advanced talks with large logistics centers to store these industrial treasures. The main candidate is the port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, the largest in Europe. A spokesperson for the port authority has confirmed the ongoing talks, underlining the full readiness of its facilities to assume this strategic role and contribute to European goals. But the bunker will not be centralized in a single point. Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso revealed that EU officials recently visited Porto Marghera, near Venice, to assess its viability as a storage hub. The port of Trieste is also competing to become the great logistics node of the Mediterranean. However, in this deployment there is a big elephant in the room: financing. Acquiring and maintaining these reserves will require a monumental financial muscle whose origin and distribution mechanisms among Member States are still unknown. The bath of reality. Storing minerals is not like storing natural gas. While rare earth oxides are relatively stable materials, processed gallium metal or certain forms of graphite require highly controlled environmental conditions, a technical challenge that has yet to be resolved. This bunker is just a patch. How an analysis of Rare Earth Exchangestrategic inventories can cushion the impact of a sudden supply outage, but they do not replace an industrial ecosystem. Europe has a deep structural problem, since it is useless to have tons of rare earths stored in Rotterdam if the continent lacks the capacity to refine these materials, convert them into metal and manufacture magnets on a large scale. China has been building this complex ecosystem for decades, while Europe is just beginning to take stock of its own dependence. Added to this deficit is a paralyzing bureaucracy: the few European mining projects are stuck for years in a tangle of administrative permits, making this warehouse an even more desperate measure. The new industrial cold war. While Europe strives to design this defense mechanism against the clock, its rival continues to move chips. China is not only legislating to restrict exports, it is accelerating the construction of its own strategic reserve sites, shielding by law that its resources remain within its borders for a minimum of five years. The creation of this European bunker marks a point of no return. These maneuvers demonstrate that Western governments have definitively abandoned the supply model driven by the free market to embrace deeply interventionist industrial policies. The ambitious goals of the EU Critical Raw Materials Law for 2030 – extracting 10% and processing 40% of what it consumes in its own territory – today seem like an unattainable mountain. The Rotterdam mineral bunker will not solve Europe’s industrial orphanhood, but in the new era of resource geopolitics, it is the only lifeline left to buy the time it so desperately needs. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The condemnation that afflicts China: after decades of manufacturing a competitive desktop processor, it is six years behind

They measure 85 meters, have no anchors and are connected to Starlink: the gigantic "Roombas" sailors who want to save AI from the blackout

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The rise of artificial intelligence is devouring the capacity of electrical grids around the world, skyrocketing consumption and carbon emissions. And this is just the beginning. As Garth Sheldon-Coulson, CEO of the startup Panthalassa, warned, in an interview with CBS News: “We are still at the beginning of this lawsuit.” To solve this bottleneck, the heaviest investors in the technology sector are looking to the sea. Peter Thiel, the controversial billionaire co-founder of Palantir and PayPal, just led a $140 million injection into Panthalassa. But what exactly is Panthalassa? To understand it, you have to erase the traditional image of an industrial warehouse full of servers. Sheldon-Coulson described it with a rather peculiar metaphor: “It’s like ‘a giant Roomba,’ an autonomous, self-propelled system that sails without anchors across the Pacific.” The anatomy of a marine colossus. Panthalassa will use this newly raised $140 million to complete its pilot plant in Oregon and accelerate the deployment of its new model, the Ocean-3which will be tested in the North Pacific in 2026 with a view to commercialization in 2027, as detailed ESG Today. We are not talking about small buoys. The proportions are colossal. As explained Financial Timesthese solid steel structures measure about 85 meters long. To give us an idea, they are almost as tall as the iconic Big Ben of London or the building Flatiron from New York. In Xataka There is a company that has grown 3,000% in the stock market, even beating the performance of Nvidia: Sandisk The engineering behind. Just as described Tom’s Hardwarethe nodes are shaped like a “lollipop”: a huge white sphere floats on the surface, while a long tubular structure submerges vertically under the water. As the waves pass, the structure rises and falls. This relative motion forces seawater up the pressurized tube into the spherical chamber, where it spins a turbine. Being a continuous cycle powered by an ocean that never stops, the system generates electricity 24 hours a day. But this is where the real twist of the project lies. Historically, the big problem with wave energy has been the enormous cost of laying underwater cables to bring electricity to the coast. According to GeekWirePanthalassa solves this in one fell swoop: it doesn’t send power to shore, but uses it directly on board to power the AI ​​chips. Once the information is processed, the results (inference tokens) are sent back to clients on the ground via low-orbit satellite connections, such as SpaceX’s Starlink network. The end of terrestrial bottlenecks. This approach represents a radical paradigm shift in technological infrastructure. “Panthalassa’s idea transforms a power transmission problem into a data transmission problem,” explains to Ars Technica Benjamin Lee, computer engineer and architect at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to inexhaustible energy, the ocean offers another vital advantage: cold. Traditional data centers spend fortunes and consume millions of liters of drinking water just to prevent servers from melting due to heat. On the high seas, the story is different. As detailed BusinessWirethe ocean provides “free supercooling,” solving one of the industry’s biggest engineering challenges and extending the life of chips. Added to this is the growing citizen resistance. As pointed out Tom’s Hardwarelocal communities are increasingly rejecting the construction of these huge land-based industrial warehouses due to noise, land grabbing and energy diversion. On the ocean, there are simply no neighbors to bother or urban planning plans to navigate. Besides, as highlighted Finance TimesBeing a closed water circuit without external engines or emissions, the impact on marine life is minimal, underpinning its ecological appeal. The challenge of taming the ocean. As revolutionary as the idea may sound, transforming the ocean into a global supercomputer has titanic obstacles: The connectivity bottleneck. As he warns Ars Technicarelying on satellites is fine for “inference” (i.e. returning real-time responses to ChatGPT users or similar), but satellites have limited bandwidth and latency. If multiple ocean nodes are required to coordinate to train a heavy AI model, satellite connectivity simply won’t measure up against traditional fiber optic cables. The fury of the sea. Data Center Dynamics emphasizes that these nodes They will have to survive extreme conditions: hurricanes, corrosive saltpeter and perpetual motion for more than a decade without human intervention or maintenance. They are not alone in the idea of ​​​​wetting the servers. According to Ars Technica, Microsoft has already tested submerging data centers in the seabed with its Project Natickand Chinese companies already operate underwater infrastructure near Hainan Island. However, Panthalassa is much bolder: being floating, autonomous nodes without grounded cables, they completely break the umbilical cord with the continental electrical grid. {“videoId”:”x9sjece”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”CHINA is WINNING the TECH WAR because they planned it that way 10 YEARS AGO”, “tag”:”china”, “duration”:”721″} A bet at the height of desperation. Despite investor optimism, transforming the Pacific into the next computing cloud will not be a cake walk. $210 million (the company’s total funding to date) may seem like an outrageous amount to throw servers into the sea, but it needs to be put into perspective. As highlighted Ars Technicathis figure is anecdotal if we consider that large American technology companies plan to spend $765 billion building terrestrial data centers in 2026 alone. Faced with the desperation of the sector – which has been exploring since reopen abandoned nuclear power plants until setting up servers powered by solar panels in space orbit—the option of floating in the ocean seems reasonable. The ultimate goal of Panthalassa, as shared by its CEOis to deploy thousands of these nodes far from the coasts. If they can tame the waves and satellite bottlenecks, they could have found the Holy Grail of AI: “The cheapest energy on the planet, infinite, clean and beyond the reach of Earth’s bureaucracy.” Image | Panthalassa Xataka | Old chips never die: companies that made “boring” chips are riding the dollar (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news They … Read more

Iran has just crossed the great energy red line. Türkiye is the first victim of a blackout that is already looking at Europe

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We had been holding our breath for weeks, accepting the logistical tension in the Strait of Hormuz as the new normal. However, the war has crossed an irreversible red line. We have gone from a trade blockade to the physical destruction of the world’s energy engine, and the consequences are already being felt in the global economy. The impact was so immediate that the price of natural gas in Europe skyrocketed by 35%. Global interdependence has caused the first major domino to fall to be thousands of kilometers from the epicenter: Turkey has become the first country to suffer a gas supply cut, marking the beginning of a chain reaction. The blow to the energetic heart. It is not just any objective. As explained Deutsche Welle, South Pars is the largest natural gas reserve in the world – shared with Qatar, which calls its part North Dome – and contains enough gas to supply the world’s needs for 13 years. It is the basis of Iran’s energy survival. The response from Tehran was withering and expansive. As detailed in the Wall Street JournalIran did not limit itself to responding to Israel, but attacked vital infrastructure in neighboring countries, launching missiles against the gigantic Ras Laffan industrial complex in Qatar (the largest liquefied natural gas facility in the world) and refineries in Saudi Arabia. In the midst of this war chaos, Iran turned off the tap: Tehran suddenly paralyzed its natural gas exports to Türkiye. Türkiye in the eye of the hurricane. The cutoff to Türkiye is not an anecdote, it is the symptom of a systemic crisis. According to the data provided by BloombergLast year, Ankara imported around 13% or 14% of its total gas needs (about 7 billion cubic meters) from Iran. To the gallery, the Turkish government tries to project calm. How to collect ReutersTurkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has categorically assured that “there are no supply problems” and that the country’s storage facilities are at 71% of their capacity. Furthermore, the minister insists that oil dependence of the Middle East is a “manageable 10%” and they are already accelerating diversification agreements with giants such as TotalEnergies, Exxon and Shell. The markets are not optimistic. The experts consulted by Middle East eye They point out that Turkey has alternatives – such as increasing the flow from Russia or Azerbaijan – but the closing of the Iranian tap will force Ankara to compete fiercely in the international market for emergency shipments of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Panic reaches Europe. And this is where the domino effect hits us directly. As Türkiye goes on a desperate hunt for LNG ships, the pressure on prices becomes unsustainable for the Old Continent. The day after the start of the conflict, the price of gas rose 55%. However, in the midst of this European chaos, one country is resisting the challenge much better than its neighbors: Spain. Thanks to a massive deployment of solar and wind energy, our country manages to cushion the initial blow by sinking prices during daylight hours. But the transition is painfully incomplete and we are not invulnerable. As analyst Antonio Aceituno, from Tempos Energía, warns, the Spanish balance is broken when evening falls. When the sun disappears, gas combined cycles begin to cover demand, returning tension to prices. It is empirical proof that, without massive batteries to guard the sun, at eight in the afternoon we are still at the mercy of what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. As the expert Gerard Reid reflects in Euronewsit is preferable to depend on China to import a solar panel once every 25 years, than to depend on gas from the Persian Gulf every day. Broken diplomacy. Arab governments are “furious” because they feel the US-Israeli strategy has put a target on their backs. For its part, Qatar has called the attacks on its facilities a “dangerous and irresponsible step” and a direct threat to its national security. In the midst of this powder keg, Washington’s role is erratic. President Donald Trump took to social media to deny prior knowledge of the Israeli attack on South Pars. However, Trump did not hesitate to issue a brutal ultimatum to Tehran: if it attacks Qatar again, the United States will “massively blow up the entire” Iranian oilfield. The scars of a systemic war. As my colleague Miguel Jorge analyzes well,the dynamic that has been activated is dangerously reminiscent of the 1991 Gulf War. It is no longer about destroying military capabilities or political pressure; We are facing a war against the very infrastructure that supports the states. The apparent lightness with which this conflict has developed has dragged us into a dead end. Iran has shown that it does not need to win a conventional military war; It is enough for him to set the energetic heart of the planet on fire. Even if a ceasefire were signed tomorrow, the material reality is inescapable. Charred refineries and dry pipelines to Türkiye are not rebuilt with signatures on a piece of paper. The scar on the world’s infrastructure will take years to heal, and the crisis that we had been avoiding for months has already detonated irreversibly. Image | Hamed Malekpour Xataka | The red lines are ceasing to exist: the fear of the US and Qatar in the face of Iran’s attacks on basic infrastructure

A year ago, the blackout caused the Spanish data network to collapse. The CNMC believes it has the solution

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In April 2025 Spain suffered a zero energy of which, precisely now, we are going to begin to pay some of its consequences. I remember quite clearly being cut off, not being able to call or send messages via data connection. However, when I changed locations and arrived at my relatives’ houses, some of them could do it. The fall of telecommunications It was uneven in Spainand the CNMC has published a document with preventive measures in case a similar situation occurs again. What happened. The energy blackout that left Spain plunged into darkness resulted in a large part of the population being cut off from communication. However, some operators They managed to keep their mobile network active for hours. Backup generators, generating sets moved to each area, backup systems… The challenge for operators to maintain coverage in Spanish territory was a titanic challenge, quite dependent on internal logistics, the state of the reserve batteries (some of them run on fuel), and the network infrastructure itself They were variables that influenced such unequal conditions to be experienced. A single network. In its statement, the CNMC proposes that the four giants of the Spanish territory put roaming plans at the service of the population in emergency cases. The experience of other countries shows that it is viable to incorporate roaming plans between operators in case of emergency. In this way, in areas where this was necessary due to the unavailability of service in an operator’s mobile network, the networks could be prepared to quickly enable the basic telecommunications services of the affected users through roaming in the networks of other operators. According to the regulator, this is an “ideal measure to strengthen resilience”, but it is not so easy to apply. Yes, but. What the CNMC proposes is a cross-roaming service between Telefónica, Vodafone and MásOrange, something that requires coordination and agreement between the three giants. The best example is Sweden where, after two years of preparation, any mobile phone can connect to any operator. Go deeper. In addition to this proposal, the CNMC requests the mandatory nature of the alert system HANDLE in those cars with DAB+ radio receivers (the evolution of FM radio). Although DAB+ works via antenna (like AM and FM radio), its signal is digitally encoded. The ASA system allows you to automatically activate a DAB+ radio connected to power, being able to quickly launch alerts. At the moment, there is a distance from proposal to fact. In Xataka | Europe has a million reasons to fear an increase in the price of electricity. Spain has something else: renewables

The price of electricity, the cold and the fear of a blackout have brought a 19th century job back to London: chimney sweeps

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When you hear about chimney sweeps, the image that comes to mind is that of men (or boys) from the late 19th century with smudged faces, shirts full of soot and a large broom on their shoulders. That’s the topic. The photographs that Google shows when we search for the word and the one it illustrates your entry on Wikipedia. Today the reality is very different. In the middle of 2026, not only are there still professionals dedicated to the trade, but they use cutting-edge technology and in cities like London they are experimenting a resurgence thanks to the price of energy. His appearance is nothing like that of the famous Bert de ‘Mary Poppins’but they continue to play a key role… and above all they are in demand. Chimney sweeps in 2026? Exact. And at least in London they are not an extemporaneous and decadent group, the memory of a bygone era. On the contrary. As I counted a few days ago The New York Times The profession is still very much alive there, it has been able to adapt to the needs (and resources) of the 21st century and above all it is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the cost of energy. The clearest proof is left by National Chimney Sweeps Association (NACS, for its acronym in English): in 2021 it had 590 members, today its membership base is already around 750. The union includes dozens of women and some businesses claim that in winter they receive between 70 and 80 calls a day. What do they do? Essentially the same as its predecessors from the 19th and 20th centuries, although in a very different context and with very different resources. To remove soot from chimneys they still use brushes that Bert from ‘Mary Popins’ would perfectly recognize, but that is only part of an arsenal that also includes digital cameras, industrial vacuum cleaners and smoke detection equipment. “Almost like chimney technicians,” points out Martin Glynnfrom NACS. Companies are even using drones to scan rooftops. Nothing to do with the habits that once made the profession infamous, such as employing orphans to climb chimneys and clean ducts. It sounds like terrifying science fiction, but this practice was common in the 18th and 19th centuries. In fact in 1875 the death of a child that got stuck in Fulbourn generated such a stir that the Government approved a law that banned “climbing children.” Are there still chimneys? Yes. British chimney sweeps were not immune to key changes, such as the popularization of central heating in the second half of the 20th century or the Clean Air Act (‘Clean Air Act‘) of 1956, but the union has been able to endure and today lives in a much kinder time, even one of vindication. I told it just a year ago in The Telegraph Steven Pearce, descendant of a long line of chimney sweeps who started in the trade decades ago, convinced that the profession’s days were numbered. “At first I only accepted it as a weekend job because we thought the trade would disappear with the 1956 law, when the Government gave local authorities the power to control the burning of coal and boiler fumes,” Pearce relates. “But that didn’t happen, in fact the last five years have been better than ever in business. It’s the busiest time I’ve seen in 45 years.” He is not the only one which confirms the rebirth of the profession. What is the reason? In 2026 English homes may not rely on coal and wood for heat, but they will still light their fireplaces. And not only because of the popularization of stoves. NACS itself admits that demand for its services has been driven by two factors: the increase in energy prices of recent years and a turbulent international context, in which the electricity supply seems a vulnerable flank to enemy attacks. The group also remembers that people simply “like to sit in front of a fireplace” to read, have a glass of wine, watch a movie and unwind. As if that were not enough, a good fire also helps reduce dependence and expense on central heating. What does the regulations say? Of course there are restrictions on the domestic use of coal, but The New York Times remember that even in areas like London the burning of authorized fuels They emit very little visible smoke. What they do generate is soot, which explains why the Government advises that chimneys be cleaned every year with professional help. “People think: ‘We’re going to have a plan B, a fireplace, a stove in case the power goes out,’” Glynn adds.president of NACS. “If you have the option of burning wood or smokeless fuel you can still cook and have some heating. There is a big increase in demand, people are lighting fireplaces again.” How does the future look? Steven Pearce assures that his clients continue buying stoves and admits that it is difficult for him to believe that people are going to do without the installations, even if they are prohibited. “I can’t imagine those who have spent £3,000 to £5,000 installing them not using them.” In fact, he maintains that in recent years he has seen “a great resurgence in the purchase of multi-fuel fireplaces and stoves, which burn wood, charcoal and smokeless materials.” It’s not all advantages: your ‘bill’ is PM2.5 emissionparticles invisible to the naked eye but which do represent a harmful “air pollutant”. Images | Wikipedia, Jorbasa Fotografie (Flickr) and NACS In Xataka | While the whole world looks at oil, Venezuela’s true treasure is hidden in the basements of London: its gold

Atomic clocks seemed untouchable. A blackout caused a difference in the official US time

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To think that the official time of a country could fail is, at first, almost impossible. We are not talking about a domestic clock or just any server, but about the system that sets the pace of networks, satellites and critical services. That is why it is surprising to discover what happened recently in the United States. A power outage in Colorado was enough to remind us that extreme precision is not isolated from the physical world that sustains it. According to CBS, Xcel Energy applied a preventive shutdown to reduce the risk of fires due to very strong gusts of wind, and the NIST complex in Boulder was affected on Wednesday of last week. The power outage was followed by a backup generator in the institute’s laboratory. In that sequence, and according to information confirmed by NIST, the country’s time reference was slightly off for a brief interval, until part of the supply could be restored. Put a tiny deviation into context. The figure that came out of the NIST systems was 4.8 microseconds, that is, just a few millionths of a second different from what was expected. To get an idea of ​​that magnitude, NIST itself explained that A human blink lasts around 350,000 microseconds, a very different scale from the recorded mismatch. The variation is so small that for the vast majority of everyday uses it is irrelevant, but it serves to illustrate the extent to which even a minor deviation is measured, recorded and taken seriously in temporal reference systems. To understand why this offset is considered relevant, it is worth clarifying what exactly the official time of the United States is. The country is not governed directly by UTC, the coordinated international standard to which multiple nations contribute, but by a national implementation known as NISTUTC. Since 2007, that reference is established under the supervision of the Secretary of Commerce and the US Navy, and is adjusted to stay aligned with global coordinated timing. NIST-F4 Cesium Source Atomic Clock NIST calculates the official time from a weighted average of sixteen clocks spread across its campus, including hydrogen masers and cesium beam clocks, each with different functions and strengths. This approach allows us to gain stability and resilience, since the final signal is not conditioned by the behavior of a single instrument. Therefore, even when one of the elements of the system is affected, the whole continues to offer an extremely precise reference. What broke was not the watch. During the blackout, the atomic clocks continued to run thanks to their battery systems, as explained by NIST. The problem occurred in the connection between some of those clocks and the measurement and distribution systems that consolidate the final signal. When that communication was lost for an interval and one of the planned backups failed, the resulting time reference slowed down slightly. Technical personnel who remained at the facilities later activated a reserve diesel generator, which allowed part of the operation to be recovered and the system to be stabilized. NIST page The institute stressed that this gap has no appreciable effects on daily life. The nuance appears when looking at certain technical sectors, where extreme synchronization is an operational requirement. Critical infrastructures, telecommunications networks, positioning systems or some scientific environments work with such tight margins that even a minimal deviation deserves to be recorded and reported. The next step was to return to operational normality. NIST indicated that the correction of the gap will be carried out when all systems are fully powered and can be recalibrated with guarantees. Xcel Energy announced yesterday Monday that it was completing the restoration of service after the storm and the preventive cuts applied due to fire risk. Meanwhile, the institute began an internal review to evaluate the impact of the blackout and verify that redundancies and protocols responded as planned. Images | NIST In Xataka | China says it has detected an NSA operation against its most sensitive infrastructure: the center that controls the time

A blackout has reminded Waymo where its limits are

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More than 10 years ago, a user named karmafrappuccino posted a meme that would go down in the history of memes (if there is any history of memes) with the name confused Travolta. Since then, the image of Vincent Vega with a coat in his hand and looking from one side to the other completely clueless in Mia Wallace’s living room has been used countless times. Last weekend, the Waymo of San Francisco experienced their own Confused Travolta. Detained. That’s how the Waymo cars ended up last weekend in San Francisco. Stopped, without reacting and with the emergency lights on. The service of autonomous driverless cars that circulate through the American city completely collapsed after a blackout left the traffic lights in part of the city without service. In images like the ones in this video Up to five Waymo cars can be seen completely stopped at an intersection haphazardly. Three of them are on the right side, with the emergency lights active, but another two have stopped completely in the middle of an intersection, making life difficult for the rest of the drivers. For hours. In The New York Times They report that tow truck employees spent hours picking up Waymo cars scattered around the city. The blackout, which had affected some 130,000 residents of the city, ended up causing chaos in the streets after Waymo cars will block intersections and streets. The company confirmed that it ended up stopping the service. They point out in the newspaper that they contacted the company from the city to demand that they stop the service since it was creating even more problems in traffic. Social networks show videos and photographs of Completely collapsed intersections or streets for Waymo’s self-driving cars. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet But why? Well, that’s the big doubt. Because experts consulted by The New York Times They point out that cars should be prepared to save situations like this. In fact, they clarify that it is not unusual for San Francisco traffic lights to have poor visibility or for GPS signals to be lost and cars to work correctly. The company has clarified that if a traffic light is off, the car understands it as a Stop with exit in four directions. That is, the car should have continued moving forward when the conditions of the intersection permitted it. Something that, We refer to the videosit didn’t happen. The problem is that cars seem to be trained to deal with turning off a traffic light but not all traffic lights. They explain in The Verge that the car sends a video and images to a human when it finds itself in an exceptional situation that it does not know how to deal with and it shows it the way. The problem is that, in the event of a blackout, it is difficult for the available bandwidth to allow this data to be sent. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The Tesla case. Given the chaos caused by Waymo’s robotaxis, Elon Musk did not take long to score the goal. The reason is that the autonomous driving system has been built on neural networks that They use the data of millions of drivers to show the car how it should behave. In fact, the company itself, in one of the updates to the FSD, its most advanced driving assistance package, removed 300,000 lines of code in which he explicitly explained to the car how it should behave. Instead, it is the images and data captured by the millions of cars on the road that show each unit what it should do. This has its drawbacks, such as a car decelerates without reason when encountering a police vehiclebut it has many advantages when it comes to smoother driving. In addition, it is easier to face unforeseen events because with so many cars on the streets it is relatively easy for someone to have faced an unexpected situation, whatever it may be. Unforeseen. Currently, the biggest enemy of autonomous driving is precisely this: face the unexpected. And it is not the first time that autonomous cars cause images in which streets or intersections collapse due to communication failures or misinterpreting signs and warnings. For example, one of the cars Cruise ended up running from the police because he didn’t know how he should act when faced with the emergency lights of the car that was chasing him. The car, on that occasion, had to be turned off remotely. And widespread discontent. Although robotaxis have ended up becoming another part of the San Francisco landscape, to the point of being a tourist attraction, since these services were launched they have provoked all kinds of protests and actions by neighbors against them. Some as simple as putting a cone on the hood. And autonomous cars have crossed the line of what city residents are willing to suffer. The crossings collapsed due to a blackout have been the latest case but only a few weeks ago a Waymo car ran over a well-known cat in one of the neighborhoods in which they operate. Reactions to the case showed that, although a self-driving car is involved in fewer accidents, we are more critical of the system than when the car is operated by a human. Not to mention the Cruise case, which ended up losing his license (although he later recovered it before abandon permanently) for being involved, among others, in an incident in which a neighbor was run over and the car instead of stopping He drove over her and parked on her. It was also the case that the failure in one of their cars caused the delay of emergency services in a fire where one person lost their life. Photo | Waymo and Georg Eiermann In Xataka | I have tried a fully autonomous taxi. This is what it’s like to … Read more

The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

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The blackout on April 28 did not come free, and we consumers are going to pay for it. Iberdrola has confirmed that the extra cost caused by the “reinforced mode” that was activated after the massive blackout. And everything indicates that the rest of the electric companies will follow in their footsteps. what has happened. They tell it in The World. Until now, the impact of the blackout on the bill had been limited because the CNMC intervened so that the electricity companies could not modify the price for customers who have contracted fixed rates. FACUA also issued a statement warning that rates could not be raised if it did not appear in the contract. The blackout was more than six months ago, more than enough time for many free market contracts to have been renewed. This has given Iberdrola the opportunity to introduce clauses that allow them to pass the cost on to customers. Reinforced mode After the blackout, the so-called “reinforced mode” was activated. This adjustment involves intervening in the market to incorporate more conventional energy (gas, hydroelectric and nuclear) and limiting the entry of renewables with the aim of avoiding voltage failures. And of course, these energies are more expensive, in addition to requiring more auxiliary services to stabilize the network. The problem is that this It started as a patch after the blackout, but it has become the new normal which remains half a year later. The cost. It covers from the blackout until September and amounts to 210 million euros distributed between Spain and Portugal. Of this sum, Spain assumes the majority, with 180 million euros. Iberdrola regrets that the change in the system by Red Eléctrica is entailing an extra cost that “affects our results” and they hope to transfer 70% of this amount to their clients before the end of the year. Not just Iberdrola. Nothing prevents the rest of the electricity marketers from following in Iberdrola’s footsteps. According to El Mundo, the total cost of the reinforced mode in these six months amounts to 731 million euros and it looks like it will remain active for longer, so this amount will increase. The CNMC warns that any change in contract prices must be communicated transparently. From one pocket to another. In the Iberian Peninsula there are five nuclear power plants, 1,300 hydroelectric plants and some 200 gas plants. These conventional (non-renewable) energy plants are providing more energy as long as the boosted mode remains active and they are receiving more income for it. What is striking is that they mostly belong to private companies such as Iberdrola, Naturgy either Endesawho are the ones who will end up increasing the price of the invoice. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Five months later we continue to discover things about the blackout in Spain. And the news is getting worse for Europe

Half a year after the blackout, Red Eléctrica still has problems stabilizing the voltage. And there is a geographical reason

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Just six months ago, Spain was left in the dark. The “electric zero” of April 28, 2025 was the most serious warning of a system that he believed himself invulnerable. Since then, Red Eléctrica (REE) operates in “reinforced mode”with dozens of gas plants turned on every day to prevent tension from skyrocketing. But, half a year later, the problem is still there: the Spanish grid is faltering not because of a lack of energy, but because the gas is in the north and the sun is in the south. How are the measurements now? At the beginning of October, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) approved, at the request of REE, an emergency resolution to introduce exceptional measures “in the event of sudden voltage variations” detected in the system. The document details changes to several operating procedures that affect the way the electrical grid is programmed and regulated. In practice, the rules of the game were tightened for everyone: from solar producers to gas plants. Among the most significant measures is the obligation for renewable plants to carry out their power transitions in a minimum of 15 minutes, when before they did so in two. The intention, have explained from REEis to avoid sudden changes that could destabilize the system and give the thermal power plants time to react. As explained in Cinco Díasthis instruction allows gas plants to “absorb” excess renewable energy without causing power surges. But for many expertsthe underlying diagnosis is different: the problem is not speed, but geography. Two electric Spains. The country is experiencing a geographic imbalance that we already saw it coming. On the one hand, the north and the Mediterranean coast concentrate the majority of thermal power plants and combined cycle plants – the only ones capable of providing the so-called “rotating mass”, that is, inertia and reactive power that stabilize the network. On the other hand, the south of the peninsula—Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha—has been filled with solar plants and domestic self-consumption, technologies based on power electronics that do not generate natural inertia. “During peak radiation hours, the south produces more electricity than it consumes, the lines are discharged and the grid becomes extremely sensitive,” explains in his column Joaquín Coronado, president of Build to Zero. Under these conditions, starting a thermal power plant in Asturias to stabilize a voltage problem in Seville is as useless as trying to put out a fire in Andalusia with water pumped from Galicia. The tension starts from the local. The error of approach is in confusing frequency with tension. The electrical frequency is a global magnitude: it is the same throughout the synchronous network. But the voltage is a local variable, which depends on the reactive power flows in each area. Coronado sums it up clearly: reactive power “does not travel well.” On 400 kV lines, its radius of action is 30 to 80 km. In 220 kV networks, from 15 to 40 km. And at 132 kV or lower, just 5 to 20 km. This means that a turbine in the north cannot stabilize the voltage in the south, no matter how much power it has. The CNMC, in its resolutionrecognizes precisely that “rapid voltage variations” appear in periods of low demand and high solar production, aggravated by the growth of self-consumption that “reduces the observability of the system” and leaves the operator without control over thousands of small installations. In summary and how we have explained in Xataka: we have more sun than cables. This shows in the pocket. REE’s response has been to maintain lit every day between 20 and 30 combined cycles to ensure stability. This “reinforced operation” has cost more than 1 billion additional euros since April and could add 3 billion more with the new measures. Adjustment services – energy that is paid outside the daily market to keep the network stable – have gone from 240 million in 2019 to 4 billion in 2025, according to Cinco Días. The result is paradoxical: Spain has one of the lowest wholesale prices in Europe, but one of the highest electricity bills. Ember’s report explains why: the market price only covers half of the bill; The other half are fixed network costs, tolls, taxes and system stability, which do not go down even if energy is cheap. Slowing down is not stabilizing. The decisions adopted by REE and temporarily endorsed by the CNMC are “a defensive strategy” for Coronado. Furthermore, he points out that instead of providing the system with rapid response capacity, it is chosen to slow it down to give time to the thermals. The result is maintaining “a 21st century system operated with a 20th century mentality.” Slowing down the renewable ramps does not provide voltage control where it is needed, because the problem occurs in seconds and in specific places, not in the 15 minutes that these ramps last. The measures, therefore, gain time, but they do not gain effectiveness: they mitigate the frequency, not the tension. Is there any future perspective? The solution is to bring the control capacity closer to where the energy is produced. In fact, we have already discussed in Xataka some of those possible solutions that agree with what Joaquín Coronado says. Grid-forming inverters in solar and wind plants, able to behave as synchronous generators and stabilize the network in milliseconds. Batteries strategically distributed in the southern nodes, which provide instantaneous active and reactive power. Devices FACTS and synchronous compensators in critical substations (Guillena, Mérida, Puertollano…) to dampen local voltage changes. Flexible demand from large industries to modulate consumption in real time. And predictive algorithms based on artificial intelligence that anticipate local instabilities. Some of these solutions are already underway. Spain prepare the installation of eight synchronous compensators and 2,600 MW of batteries, with 340 MW already approved. These devices could save 200 million euros annually by reducing the use of gas for network services. A model that is exhausted. Beyond the technique, there is a structural dilemma: how … Read more

Five months later we continue to discover things about the blackout in Spain. And every time they are worse news for Europe

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Five months later of the great blackout of April 28a preliminary report from the Technological Research Institute (IIT) of the Pontifical University Comillas has put the focus in an insufficient synchronous generation program in the peninsular south as a “fundamental cause” of the electric zero. The document, commissioned by Endesa and Iberdrola and sent to Entso-E, also questions operational maneuvers of Electrica de España (REE). A “collapse due to overtension.” The report introduces this unpublished concept in Europe. A phenomenon in which the tension rises uncontrollably by disconnecting renewable generation that operates with constant power factor. According to IIT calculationsthe safety margin available on the 220 kV network was 1,019 MW, but the disconnections exceeded 1,600 MW. Take into practice it would be when a renewable plant is disconnected, the tension rises. That increase causes new disconnections, which makes the tension rise more, in a vicious circle that ends in the collapse.As details the quotation note of Comillasthat cascade reaction is not precedents in the continent and shows that the simple verification that the tension is within the “is not enough” range to guarantee stability. A fragile and little inertia network. The debate is not “renewable yes or no”, but how to adapt the network and how it operates in high renewable penetration scenarios. The Iit Identify four critical points: Little programmed synchronous generation: in Andalusia there was alone A combined cycle group On the way, when the usual were several. Weak Network: At 9:00 in the morning, 35% of the 400 kV network was disconnected in the central and south areas. Dopsy inertia: In Andalusia it fell to 1.3 seconds, 35% less than the 2 seconds recommended by Entso-e. Risky maneuvers: between 12:00 and 12:30, Ree He connected eleven lines additional to try to cushion the oscillations, but those operations further reduced the safety margin. The chronology of a collapse announced. The government report had already described one morning with “Atypical volatility”. At 12:03 there was a first 0.6 Hz oscillation; At 12:19, another of 0.2 Hz but with a three -time amplitude. To stabilize, Ree reduced exports and connected lines that were disconnected. Far from improving the situation, the system tension increased. At 12:26, ​​the operator reached order the start From a combined cycle center in Andalusia, but the coupling time was more than an hour and a half: there was no room. From 12:32 The chain reaction began. At 12:33:19, the Peninsula It was completely dark. Shock of stories. Here it opens The crack between reports. The Government pointed to Ree in June for poor programming and a “insufficiency of dynamic tensions control capabilities.” Ree, in his own document, replied that there were several power plants that did not fulfill their obligation to absorb reactive energy, which aggravated the crisis. The electrical companies, meanwhile, denied any ruling and accused the government and ree of “opacity.” The new IIT report adds to debate Reinforcing the thesis that a scheduled synchronous generation was missing and questioning the operational maneuvers of the system operator, although it emphasizes that the analysis has the endorsement of international experts such as Goran Anderson and Pier Luigi Mancarella. And now what? The IIT recommends reviewing synchronous generation programming, strengthening tension control, using more predictive metrics and better coordinating all agents. The Government tried in July to approve A decree “antiapages” with sanctions, greater public control and more prominence for self -consumption, but the text shipwrecked in Congress. In addition, the Iberian Peninsula remains an “energy island”, with only 3% interconnection with France, which amplifies any operational error. Therefore, Spain and Portugal They have pressured To Paris to accelerate interconnection runners, “fed up with promises without calendar.” Closer and closer. Next Thursday, the European Network of Transmission Systems Operators (ENTSO-E) will publish your factual report with detailed chronology and the final technical data of the 28th. That document will be the basis on which Brussels and Member States discuss responsibilities and measures. The story of the 28th is not yet closed. And the Comillas report has just reopened it with a clear message: the energy transition does not fail to be fast, but for do not reinforce the network and the rules at the same pace. Image | Freepik Xataka | Selling smoke is now a business in Soria: it purifies it and sells it as CO2 to make soft drinks

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