collapses

Every time a megaship arrives at a port, the electrical grid collapses. The alternative already exists and does not need cables to the city

by

Ports around the world face an urgent and unavoidable mandate: decarbonize. The requirement is to turn off the huge diesel engines of commercial and cruise ships once they dock, connecting them to the local electrical grid. However, in practice, port cities have hit a concrete wall: there is not enough capacity in the land network to plug in these giants of the sea. Faced with this bottleneck, the engineering response has been to take the problem off the ground. A consortium backed by the United Kingdom and led by the firm ELIRE Maritime has been successfully validated what they define as “the world’s first floating, grid-independent hydrogen energy center.” The end of endless port works? To understand the impact of this development, you have to look at the current logistical ordeal. As emphasized Enlitinstall traditional shore power supply systems (known in the industry as shore power) is a real nightmare. The process can take between three and seven years, as it requires massive reinforcements of the network, improvements in substations, complex civil works and permitting deadlines that paralyze any progress. All this consuming land space that most ports lack. By placing the energy infrastructure directly in the water, this obstacle is overcome in one fell swoop. Furthermore, since ELIRE Maritime highlight a crucial financial advantage– The system avoids the risk of creating “stranded assets”. Unlike a concrete substation that cannot be moved if shipping routes change, this floating mega plant can be relocated as market demand dictates, giving port authorities complete independence from the network. Technological radiography. Far from being a mere concept on paper, the technology has just passed a rigorous six-month validation program. The physical design, echoed by all the media, consists of three interconnected hexagonal floating platforms that occupy about 1,200 square meters. But how does it supply power without collapsing? The system does not use huge generators to inject shock energy into the ship, but rather works on the premise of a “giant floating battery.” Through continuously operating 1.3 MW modular fuel cells (supported by up to 146 kW of onboard solar panels), the system slowly charges a massive 45 MWh battery bank throughout the week. When a ship docks, this battery releases energy quickly, delivering 5 MW of clean, continuous power without flinching. To fuel this process, the system consumes between 7,500 and 8,000 kilos of hydrogen per week. It has seven tanks on board integrated into low-pressure containers, which require refueling a couple of times a week. This allows ports to gradually adopt hydrogen without having to undertake extensive work to build pipelines or permanent storage facilities on land. The real impact. To ensure its real-world viability, the platform has undergone stability and wave testing in tanks at the University of Strathclyde, while industry giants such as Schneider Electric and Ricardo UK have successfully validated its entire complex electrical architecture. The environmental lights: According to the feasibility analyzes of the Ricardo consulting firm, the system can reduce emissions from docked ships by 77% compared to traditional diesel generation. In tangible figures, this represents a saving of about 47 tons of CO₂ per ship each week (almost 2,450 tons annually), in addition to completely eradicating emissions of toxic particles, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur (SOx) that poison the air in coastal cities. The shadow of cost: Today, this solution is more expensive than plugging into the conventional network. The estimated energy cost of this hydrogen hub is between £0.25 and £0.50 per kWh, compared to £0.15 – £0.25 for the traditional ground system. However, the consortium argues that this initial extra cost is offset by the astonishing speed of deployment and they anticipate that standardization and the future drop in the price of hydrogen will equalize the trade balance. The potential is immense. The consortium estimates a global market of 62 TWh annually for grid-independent maritime solutions, with the potential to avoid the emission of 500,000 tons of CO₂ in the next decade. Next stops. As detailed ELIRE Maritimethe consortium is already in commercial talks to start the first real deployments in first-tier ports such as London, Singapore, Hamburg, Brisbane and Riga. The future of maritime decarbonization seems to have found a shortcut. It is not about inventing exotic technologies from scratch, but about integrating what we already know works (hydrogen, batteries and electrical power systems) in a much smarter way. If the mainland does not have enough electricity to power the giants of the oceans, the solution, ironically, has always been to go back into the sea. Image | ELIRE Maritime Xataka | The great challenge of drones was to transport loads for kilometers. A Chinese company has solved it with hydrogen

While the international pork sector collapses, Spain breaks records

by

The Spanish pig industry closed 2025 with a historical record and, a priori, that cannot be. Because, finally, we are talking about 5.27 million tons of meat just when the European pig has been in recession for four years. 6% year-on-year growth just as African swine fever reappears after 31 years of absence. To give us an idea: Spain already invoices 24.2% of all pork in the EU and is the third world producer behind the US and China. How is it possible? The question is timely. After all, the sector is growing against the tide. Not only because of the plague, nor because of the conflicts between Europe and China; but because the collapse in prices and the general retreat would have advised taking a more conservative line. However, the explanation is simpler than it seems: what is sold as an industrial success hides a history of extreme foreign dependence, health fragility and an environmental problem that the country refuses to solve. But let’s go in parts. December 16, 2025, China increased its final tariffs on European pork from 4.9% to 19.8% for five years. It is true that Iberian ham and sausages were left out and that for many Spanish companies the average tariff was 9.8%, but the blow was forceful. Above all, because (although apparently all this was part of the electric car wars) the problem is structural: China imports less and less because it produces more and more. To this we must add that a little earlier, on November 28, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture had confirmed the first two positives for African swine fever in wild boars, unleashing a problem that made headlines for weeks (and has still not been resolved). And from this storm that threatened to break everything, the only thing that has reached the consumer is that pork is the animal protein that has become the least expensive during 2025. Because? Well, because the crisis has been metabolized, driving the concentration of the sector: today, the ten largest companies market today 65% of national meat (compared to 52% ten years ago). We have lost 32% of small farms; but the big ones have more and more power. Something that also explains why the country is about to a very serious European sanction for not complying with the nitrates directive. In the end the question is not “how is it possible that the most efficient and best armored sector in Europe is simultaneously on the verge of a collapse of margins and with major water pollution problems?”; The point is that Spain produces more pigs than ever precisely for those reasons. Image | Amber Kipp In Xataka | The gap between what pork costs on farms and in supermarkets does not stop growing. The ranchers have said enough

While industrial production collapses in the European Union, in Switzerland is triggered. And it is an energy issue

by

In the midst of the European energy storm, Switzerland seems to live in a bubble of prosperity. In a recent publicationthe geopolitical analyst Velina Tchakarova showed how the Swiss industry continues to grow in front of the European Union. And the data does not deceive anyone: in the first quarter of this year the industrial production of the Helvetic increased 8.5% year -on -yearwhile in Germany recorded last June A 1.9%collapse, the worst data in years. The contrast is even more evident in the long term: since 2011, Swiss industrial production It has grown almost 40%in front of the German stagnation. The Swiss road. True to its neutrality, but knowing how to position itself, the Swiss industry is dominated by sectors of high added value and low relative energy consumption, like pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. But here is the most revealing: that low energy consumption is not only efficiency, but also outsourcing (a sophisticated strategy of Green offshoring). An EBP consultant study for the Federal Environmental Office (BAFU) shows that two thirds of the environmental footprint of Switzerland They are generated outside their borders. The report Umwelt Schweiz 2022 Confirm this pattern: the country reduces its internal impact at the expense of moving it abroad. There are different examples that illustrate it well: the Roche company announced in May A new biopharmaceutical plant in Shanghai, the Lonza company operating in Guangzhou Or, the most striking case, Siegfried managing a global network with headquarters in different countries that allows you to distribute phases of the chain outside the Helvetic territory. Together, these movements illustrate how the Swiss industrial “miracle” retains the added value at home while displacing the most polluting and expensive part abroad. To this is added an electrical system less vulnerable to gas: the Hydroelectricity and the nuclear They represent a good part of their mix. The Labyrinth of the EU. At this time you are going through an industrial decline: Eurostat reported that in June the production fell 1.0% in the EU as a whole and 1.3% in the eurozone. The setback It was coming last yearwhen the manufacturing volume was 2% lower than in 2022. And Ing Think analysts They warn that European industrial production It remains 5% below two years ago, a prolonged stagnation signal. To this fall is added a perfect storm: high energy costsCO₂ and an internal debate about its energy model. France, With a reactor -based systemleads the block that defends nuclear energy as a backbone of the transition. Spain and Portugal, with solar and wind abundance, demand otherwise: more interconnections and networks To take advantage of renewable surplus. In addition, it is added The tireless search by the EU of looking for another output to stock up that it is not Russia in terms of gas. While Switzerland transfers its heaviest loads to Asia, Europe is enclosed in its own rules, paying CO₂ rights that further increase its energy intensive industries. Switzerland outsourizes, Europe internalizes. Switzerland harvest added value, Europe assumes added costs. The awkward contrast. Here the paradox emerges. Switzerland exhibits an expansion industry, favorable environmental statistics and a more stable electricity supply. Everything seems to indicate that it has found the perfect formula to prosper in the midst of European chaos. For its part, the European Union is paying the price If pioneer: its factories face much higher energy costs, their energy intensive industries lose competitiveness and their governments carry the pressure of meet strict climatic objectives. But Swiss success relies on a small print. The report itself Umwelt Schweiz 2022 He admits that two thirds of the country’s environmental footprint are generated outside their borders. That is, Switzerland retains at home the added value of its pharmaceutical and technological industry, while the energy cost and pollution are transferred to other places. That apparently virtuous model implies a strategic risk: to depend on global supply chains and expose themselves to political vulnerabilities in Asia. In climatic terms, the question is inevitable: are global emissions really reduced when Switzerland “is cleaned” at the cost of others getting more? Or, in other words, isn’t its industrial miracle with another way to outsource the environmental invoice? Forecasts On paper, Switzerland seems greener and more prosperous. But the true story is told in the chimneys of China and in the closed factories of Germany. The Helvetic miracle works, to a large extent, because the energy and climatic invoice is paid by others. While industrial production collapses in the European Union, in Switzerland is triggered. However, that balance, sustained in global chains and in others, could be broken when geopolitics tightens. The real unknown is not how much the Swiss miracle can last, but who is willing to pay his invoice. Image | Freepik and Unspash Xataka | Nuclear fever in the middle of AI: Uranium rises like foam while stumble

The cheaper, the more the electric grid collapses worldwide

by

In 1812, a German named Frederick Winsor founded the Light and Coke Company in London. His proposal was to supply gas to multiple homes centrally, instead that each one had to buy and burn their own coal or their own firewood. Thus, public services were born, which today face its greatest transformation in two centuries By effect of renewables. The electricity grid According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), today there are 80 million kilometers of electrical networks in the world. By 2040, 50 million additional kilometers will be needed, in addition to the urgent need to modernize another 30 million kilometers of the current network. The challenge is not only quantity: it is not enough to multiply the electric laying. Wind energy, and especially solar energy, have introduced the need to digitize all infrastructure, Insert control systems and improve your flexibility to handle the intermittent nature of renewables. The paradox of solar energy. The more accessible the photovoltaic panels become, the more users choose to partially abandon the electricity network. This increases the cost for those who stay, and puts in check the stability of the system, pending a deep modernization. In rich and sunny regions Like California either Australiaself -consumption has been about to collapse the network in days of abundant solar generation. But you don’t have to go to the most developed places in the world to find these types of problems. A report in The Economist Review three unsuspected cases: Pakistan, the third largest importer of Chinese solar panels (according to data from 2023), is seeing how companies, farmers and large consumers install photovoltaic systems to self -abuse and stop paying very expensive electrical invoices. Still dependent on old coal plants, the price of electricity in Pakistan is very high, so users with resources have preferred to invest in solar energy South Africa lives another variant of this paradox. Before the mass cuts of the state company Eskom (which are called ‘Load Shedding’), many users install solar panels and batteries to protect themselves from interruptions. The South African municipalities that buy the energy at Eskom and then resell them have to pay increasing invoices to the company and, in turn, charge less to those who migrate to self -consumption. This has generated indebtedness with ESKOM of around 1.2% of the country’s GDP. Solar adoption relieves the dependence of the network, but in turn it is a threat to the income that maintains the infrastructure In Lebanon, the state company only provides electricity a couple of hours a day since 2019. As a direct consequence of this, the photovoltaic facilities on the roofs have multiplied, from 100 to 1,300 megawatts in just three years. This situation, despite partially solving the shortage, is resulting in a fish that bites the tail due to the lack of stability and investments in the network An open gap. As private solar facilities proliferate, fixed network costs (lines, substations …) fall on a smaller user base connected. Those who run out of resources to put panels, generally the poorest, have to pay even higher rates To cover all system expenses, which normally seeks profitability. The numbers in Europe. Europe is at the head of the world in emission and electrification objectives, but this has important economic implications. According to a Bruegel reportthey will need between 65,000 and 100,000 million euros per year to modernize and expand the European electrical infrastructure, especially in distribution networks. At the same time, the European Union promotes solar self -consumption and does not always establish sustainable tarification mechanisms for the network. If many homes are drastically or reduced their consumption of the electricity grid, the user base on which the cost of investment in infrastructure is reduced, the fixed term of the invoice is increased and duttering more consumers, who invest in more solar panels. Cross -border connections. Solar energy itself does not cause instant blackouts, but unbalanced the financial and operational structure of the electricity grid, which has fixed maintenance costs. And he does it for several reasons: the decreasing base of users, the mismatches of supply and demand due to the intermission of renewables and the use of the network as a minimum cost support. In addition to batteries and Pumping plants to stabilize the networkinternational projects such as the hypothetical are needed Transatlantic cable between America and Europe To share renewable surpluses between continents and soften demand peaks, but their development is complex, controversial and quite expensive. Image | US Department of Energy In Xataka | The next drought will be electricity: the electricity grid “is running out of transformers” for the demand for AI

the record of 1,000 million euros while Barça collapses

by

He real Madrid It is the football club that generates the most income on the entire planet. This is what he reveals the 28th edition of the report Football Money League prepared by Deloitte, which compares the emoluments that the teams earned during the last 2023/2024 season. The white club already published last summer that it had managed to exceed 1,000 million euros for the first time in its history, a record figure that made it the first club in the world to reach this stratospheric figure. Now, this latest report from Deloitte confirms that Real Madrid is, for the second consecutive year, the football team that generates the most income in the world. The champion of the Champions League and of The League He earned 1,045.5 million euros, that is, 25.8% more than the 831.4 he earned in the previous year. The completion of the renovation works of the Santiago Bernabéu caused revenue per match day to double, reaching €248 million. The club also recorded a 19% increase in commercial revenue (from €403 million to €482 million), driven by higher merchandising volumes and new sponsorships. He Manchester City maintains second place in the ranking. The citizens They are the English club with the highest income (837.8 million in turnover compared to 825.9 in 2022/23, 1.4% more), once again surpassing their own income record in a season. On the other hand, Juventus experienced the biggest drop in the ranking (356 million euros) and fell from 11th to 16th place, its lowest position in the history of the Football Money League report. Barça, from fourth to sixth He Football Club Barcelona It also lost power in the ranking of the clubs that generated the most income last season. The culés resent the work at the Camp Nou, and the fact of having to play in Montjuic It continues to take its toll on the cash register. The culés passed from fourth to sixth place and achieved a turnover of 760.3 million euros, compared to the 800.1 achieved in the 2022/2023 season, which represented a 5% reduction in income. The drop of 63 million euros in revenue per match day is largely to blame. Joan Laporta, in a press conference with FC Barcelona EFE For his part, the Atlético de Madridtwelfth in this earnings table, achieved revenues of 409.5 million euros, 12.5% ​​more than the 364.1 million registered in the previous season. Commercial and match day revenues are growing the most in these clubs, 11% year-on-year and 10% driven mainly by an increase in the organization of live events not linked to football. Finally, there was no increase in sports broadcasting income (4.3 billion euros) reported by the clubs since each of the five major European leagues were subject to the same television broadcasting contracts as the previous season.

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.