electricity

Sending electricity without cables seemed to the future. Darpa has done it again, and the test has gone better than expected

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What are 800 watts? More or less what a microwave consumes running at medium power. And 8.6 kilometers? It is an approximate distance between the stations of Atocha and Chamartínin Madrid. It is actually somewhat lower, but it serves to get an idea. That is the scale of Darpa’s last experiment: a system that managed to transmit real energy with a laser, in a straight line, without cables and with a receiver that turns the light into usable electricity. It may seem little, but it is not. The important thing was not the amount, but the test. And it worked. What exactly Darpa has done. The United States Advanced Defense Research Projects (Darpa) has successfully completed The first phase of a program called Power, designed to explore new ways of transmitting long distance energy. In their most recent test, carried out in New Mexico, they managed to send a laser beam that delivered about 800 watts for 30 seconds to a receiver located 8.6 kilometers. The figure is important because it exceeds the previous records: until now, the best documented result was 230 watts at 1.7 kilometers. Although the agency has not revealed how much power it was originally issued, it is known that the system was able to maintain energy flow for periods even longer than those officially reported. According to those responsible for the project, it was not about demonstrating efficiency, but viability. The essential thing was to check if it was possible to build a functional system in a short time. And they did it in just three months, from the initial design to the final execution. The receiver was developed by Technc Technologies and uses commercial solar cells already available in the market. The objective was not to optimize performance to the maximum, but to prove that this technology can be launched with accessible components and without complex manufacturing processes. How this technology works. The idea behind the experiment is simple to understand, although technically complex: send energy through the air with a beam of light, and that when it arrives it can be used as electricity. The DARPA system is based on an infrared laser that points directly to a receiver composed of a conical mirror and solar cells. The mirror captures the ray and redirects it towards the panels, which convert light into electrical energy. Part of the equipment used during the test The interesting thing is that no exotic components or photovoltaic cells were used to measure, as in many laboratories. Commercial cells were used, ready to use, which reinforces the idea that this technology can be viable out of paper. As we say, the performance, for now, was not the priority. Receiver efficiency is around 20 %. The Power Receiver Array Demo system achieved a new record by transmitting laser energy with more power and greater scope than ever During the test, diffractive optics were also used, an unusual resource in this type of transmissions, and an integrated cooling system was implemented directly in the optical parts, manufactured with additive printing techniques. None of these innovations was scheduled at the beginning. They were solutions that arose on the march, as they faced the challenges of the experiment. Why do it with laser and not with radio waves. Transmitting long distance energy is not a new idea. For decades it has been investigated how to do it with radio or microwave waves, but these technologies have physical limitations that include their effectiveness. As IEEE points outto work, they need large antennas and systems of Beamforminga technique that allows the signal to be concentrated in one direction. The longer the distance, the greater the issuer must be, and the more difficult it is to focus the beam with precision. Compared to radio waves, the laser can focus much better: a narrow beam can be created almost without dispersion, at least in ideal conditions, According to Eric YeatmanVice President of the College of Science and Engineering of the University of Glasgow. Of course, not everything is advantages. The lasers also disperse with fog, clouds or dust. In adverse atmospheric conditions, microwaves remain more reliable. But for certain applications, especially if we talk about aerial networks or transmissions in clear environments, the laser is difficult to match. For the Power project leader in Darpa, Paul Jaffe, if it does not work with optics, it will not work in any way. What does this advance mean (and what is not). Darpa’s experiment did not solve all the challenges of wireless energy transmission. Efficiency remains low, the system is not yet prepared to operate in adverse conditions, and the transmitted power, although notable, is far from what a commercial infrastructure would need. But that was not important. The important thing was to demonstrate that technology can work outside the laboratory, with accessible components and in realistic terms. Images | Darpa (the main image shows an earlier test in 2019, at a lesser distance) In Xataka | Antimony under another flag: the Chinese mineral that continues to enter the US disguised for Thai or Mexican export

While France and Switzerland turn off reactors by heat, Spain continues to generate electricity. The difference is in the forecast

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Europe is living Your worst heat wave with temperatures that have exceeded 40 ° C in several countries. The most unheard of, if one can see the situation, is that some European plants have had to close temporarily. An unusual fact. The heat not only feels in the streets: it is also affecting the heart of the European energy system. According to Euronews, This week three nuclear reactors have been disconnected in France and Switzerland for the temperature rise in the rivers they use to cool. In Girfch, to the south of France, one of the reactors stopped as the Garona River approached at 28 ° C. In Switzerland, the Beznau Central did the same: one of the reactors was out of service and the second was operating in half capacity by heat in the Aare River. Preventive measures. The reason behind this temporal closures responds to an environmental regulation that forces to reduce production when river water is excessively heated, since it could affect the ecosystem by being returned even longer, such as have detailed in Euronews. In addition, restrictions or power reductions have been applied in French centrals such as Buity, Blayais and Cruas. The origin of the problem. Water is key in any nuclear power plant. Without it, there is no way to keep the reactor temperature under control. But with increasingly hot rivers, especially during heat wavesthat function begins to fail. The worst thing is that many of these plants were built between 60 and 80, when climate change was not a factor to take into account. Now the consequences are clear: According to The New York TimesFrance could end up losing up to four times more electricity in summer if this type of closures becomes usual. A problem that aggravates. During the heat waves, more electricity is needed to light the air conditioners or fans, so the demand increases at the same time as the generation capacity falls. This has generated a domino effect on the European electricity market. According to the economistthe megavatio hour has come to double in a matter of days in France, affecting countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium that depend on gala electricity. And in Spain? Despite registering equal or even higher temperatures, Spain has not had to close any heat power plant. As He explained The economist, the key is in infrastructure and design. Unlike France, where many plants depend directly on rivers such as Garona or Rhone, in Spain solutions such as cooling towers have been adopted, which cool the water before returning it to the natural environment. A paradigmatic example is the Trillo plant, whose ability to operate during heat waves is due to this type of system. Also, like We have detailed in this mediumSpanish nuclear power plants are designed with a triple cooling system: a closed primary circuit that contains the fuel bars, a secondary circuit that generates the steam to move the turbines, and a third external circuit that introduces cold water – teacher of rivers, reservoirs or towers – to condense the steam. In addition, after Fukushima, all centrals incorporated portable and self -employment systems, capable of maintaining cooling functions even to climatic emergencies or electrical cuts. More interconnection? The situation that France and Switzerland are going through is not an isolated event, but a symptom of an still fragmented energy Europe. While in southern France reactors by heat go out, Spain keeps its centrals operational and could even contribute more electricity to the continent if there are better interconnections. These situations show the bottleneck that limits the electrical export capacity of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain has a nuclear park adapted to heat and a growing renewable base – specially solar and wind – that could serve as an energy lung for a Europe increasingly affected by extreme events. The energy future of the continent not only goes to adapt to heat, but also by connecting better. Image | Pixabay Xataka | Israel has been bombing the nuclear facilities that build other countries around its surroundings. This is the real risk of collapse

The true bottleneck of AI is not chips but electricity. And there China has a great asset

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Data centers are Electricity devourers. A single training cluster can spend more light than 100,000 houses. And while we become obsessed with the semiconductor war, the main problem is still there, in silence: electricity. Why is it important. Training the most powerful models require superoring workers 24 hours for whole weeks. It doesn’t matter if you have the best chips in the world if you don’t have electricity to feed them. It is like having a Ferrari with hardly any gasoline. In figures: The context. The United States has an still incontestable domain in AI and controls 75% of world computing capacity. But their companies are being delays with years to connect new data centers to the electricity network. Google, Microsoft and Amazon They have to deal with years of delays to connect new data centers to the electricity network. China, on the other hand, can lift and connect plants in a few months. Unidso’s bottleneck is in the slowness to connect new capacity to the network. Between the lines. American chip restrictions have forced China to be more efficient. He Deepseek earthquake At the beginning of the year it was the best test. China is riding its “National Integrated Computer Network”, connecting public and private data centers. Your “East Data, West Computing” plan “ Build eight big hubs in provinces with cheap renewable energy. It is something similar to what we saw at the time with the cryptocurrency mining. The key: China puts the AI ​​where there is electricity. Yes, but. Coal is still 58% of its mix energetic. Although renewables is expanding at a good pace, its current advantage is based partly on fossil fuels. That questions the sustainability of its strategy. And now what. The AI ​​career will be decided both in power plants and in laboratories. China is building the infrastructure to feed gigantic models. The United States has better chips, But worse electrical infrastructure. AI needs two things: Silicon. Electric muscle China is betting very strong for the second and that could be its winning asset. Outstanding image | ダモ リ in Unspash In Xataka | China’s three master moves to “independent” technologically from the West: raw materials, chips, AI

The material created in China that lowers the temperature of the buildings without consuming a single electricity watt

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A world where buildings are not only well isolated from abroad, but cool them as much as an air conditioning, without consuming a single electricity watt. That is what a team of Chinese and Australian scientists promises with their new bioplastic material. Short. Researchers at the University of Zhengzhou and the University of Australia del Sur presented a biodegradable film capable of cooling buildings without using electricity. According to a study published in Cell Reports Physical Sciencethis coating can reduce the temperature of a surface to 9.2 ° C in full sun. 9 degrees less. In the material field tests, carried out on a Zhengzhou roof, east of China, the results were overwhelming. In full sun, during noon, the material reached a cooling peak of 9.2 ° C below the ambient temperature. The average tests was -4.9 ° C during the day and -5.1 ° C during the night, which is equivalent to a cooling power of up to 136 watts per square meter. The film takes advantage of a known phenomenon, “passive radiative cooling” (PRC). In a nutshell, it is a lining designed to do two things: reflect sunlight so as not to heat up, and emit internal heat outwards. But it does it in an extremely efficient way. According to the simulations presented by the researchers, apply this film on the roofs of a city like Lhasa, in the Tibet, would reduce annual cooling consumption up to 20.3%. How it works. The “metaphilm” is made of polyactic acid, better known as Pla plastic; A material derived from plant sources such as corn or sugarcane, so it is biodegradable. The turn is how researchers managed to create a porous and continuous structure through a novel phase separation technique at low temperature. This microstructure has an ultrabaja thermal conductivity (of 0.049 w/m · k) and reflects almost all the solar radiation that affects it (98.7%), avoiding the initial heating and heat transfer to the interior. It also emits heat abroad thanks to its porosity. The manufacturing process is relatively simple: the PL is dissolved in chloroform, crystallizes at -20 ° C and then ethanol is used to induce phase separation before drying the film. This method is suitable for large -scale production, which paves the path for commercialization. More resistant than other attempts. One of the great challenges of previous radiative cooling materialsespecially biodegradables, it was their durability. But this new coating has demonstrated exceptional durability. The researchers submerged him in acid for 120 hours and then exposed him to ultraviolet radiation equivalent to eight months of weathering exposure. Surprisingly, the material not only survived, but maintained a cooling performance between 5 ° C and 6.5 ° C below the ambient temperature after the hard aging process. The team attributes it to its high crystallinity, which gives it a thermal and chemical stability much higher than that of its predecessors. The applications go far beyond the roofs of the buildings. Researchers already explore their use in transport, to cool vehicles, agriculture, to protect crops, electronics and even the biomedical field, to apply to dressings that regulate the temperature. Images | Yangzhe Hou et al. In Xataka | With the electric consumption triggered by the air conditioning, Singapore has had an idea: buildings that “sweat”

He has just paid 1.5 million to expand the electricity grid until its fifth datacenter

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If you pass through the A-23 at the height of Huesca and see operators opening a new underground channel for the electricity grid, you are seeing the new fat cable of Amazon. The company founded by Jeff Bezos continues to expand through Aragon With your data centers. Check me a cable here, literally. The last movement of the technological giant is an investment of almost 1.5 million euros to connect the electricity network to its future data center in the Walqa technology park, on the outskirts of Huesca. According to him Official Gazette of AragonAmazon Web Services (AWS) has projected the construction of an underground line of 1.4 kilometers that will pass under the A-23 highway and the N-330 road to take 15 kV of tension to its future center. This double circuit will connect the PHUS electric substation with the Amazon plot in Walqa. A project of 714 million. The new AWS Data Center in Walqa will occupy about 70 hectares. Construction work began at the end of April on old poultry farms. Amazon has planned a total investment of 714.6 million euros in this complex., One of the five new data centers that will be built in Aragon, adding to the existing three This center of Huesca is one of the five new data centers That AWS is going to build in the community, adding to the three already existing. The other four will be located in the Burgo de Ebro (two) and Villanueva de Gállego (two). All of them will be interconnected by a dense fiber optic network, functioning as a single and powerful “AWS region.” The Amazon Empire in Aragon. The abundance of cheap renewable energy, the available soil and regulatory facilities have consolidated Aragon as a digital hub of southern Europe. And Amazon is one of the companies that is most expanding in the area. The three locations that form the triangle of the EU-SOUTH-2 region of Amazon Web Services a data center in the Walqa Technology Park (Huesca), two data centers in the Burgo de Ebro (Zaragoza) and two other data centers in Villanueva de Gálgo (also Zaragoza). The three are expanding with five new buildings, in addition to electricity and fiber optic lines. In total, Amazon plans to occupy 354 hectares in Aragon. Not only Amazon expands in Spain. With one planned investment of 15.7 billion euros For the next decade, AWS is the data company that grows the most in Spain, but not the only one. Microsoft has announced investments of 6,690 million euros in Zaragoza and of 1,950 million in Madridwhere Oracle and IBM are also expanding. One of the most recent landings is Malo, which at the end of 2024 announced an investment of more than 750 million euros in a 190 hectares campus in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). Also looking for soil and renewable availability. Image | AWS In Xataka | Amazon, Google and now also goal: the data centers industry is still shot in Spain

China has commissioned the largest battery of all its electricity network to an unexpected company: Tesla

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China has no problem parking Commercial tensions with the United States If it is for the benefit of the country. And the country needs Tesla for an increasingly pressing task: stabilize a network with more and more renewable participation. The largest battery in the largest network. China has selected Tesla to develop what will be the largest energy storage station at network scale throughout the country, surpassing the 1 GWh battery park in Shandong. The American giant He signed an agreement with the local government of Shanghai for 4,000 million yuan, 557 million dollars, to lift a gigantic station that can actively participate in the spot electricity market. China has the largest electricity grid and a renewable energy generation capacity in constant and massive growth. The Tesla battery station You can buy and store energy When demand and price are low, and then sell it to the network during consumption peaks, helping to balance supply and demand, and improving the general stability of the system. The business is in the megapacks. The Energy Division of Tesla does not stop growing, to the point of become a fundamental pillar of the company. The project engine is megapacks, Large storage units in 3.9 MWh batteries which can be used to stabilize the electricity grid and avoid supply cuts. It is no accident that the most ambitious battery station in China will be built in Shanghai. Just four months ago, Tesla launched a new Megapacks factory in the Lin-Gang area, where is also its car factory “Gigafactory Shanghai”. The new “Megafactory” is the first plant of this type out of the United States, and although it has barely been operational since February, it has already produced more than 100 megapacks. Tesla gets into the patio of Catl and Byd. They are “only business”, but the movement is still striking considering that Tesla is competing with Catl and Bydthe two Chinese giants who take 54% of the world battery market. Another way to see it is that China needs many batteries By the end of the year, the government expects to reach 40 GW of storage. But taking into account that the country installs half of the entire new capacity for renewables (329 GW in 2024), by the time the Tesla battery station in Shanghai enters service, the goal will have continued to rise. And Tesla will be just one of the puzzle pieces. Image | Tesla In Xataka | China manufactures more batteries than anyone. The problem: they accumulate next to the solar panels without storing energy

The government blames Red Eléctrica. Electric network blames electric. Electricity blames the Government and Red Eléctrica

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Crossing accusations among the actors of the Spanish energy system. The Government of Spain published at the last minute of Tuesday the report that will submit to Brussels on the blackout of April 28, in which it indicates the poor planning of the network operator. Hours later, Red Electrica has submitted its own report, pointing to the bad praxis of electric companies. The electric, on the other hand, deny all responsibility, ensuring that their systems acted correctly to an unstable network, and accusing the opacity authorities. In a corner of the ring, the Government of Spain. The official report of the analysis committee created by the Government is overwhelming: the blackout was the result of a surge chain reaction that the system could not support. Although the 182 pages technical research Distribute responsibility between the planner and the executors (plants that were connected, but did not comply with the criteria set to control the tension), the Ministry for Ecological Transition directs directly to the network operator due to structural weakness. Among entire pages censored to maintain the confidentiality of those involved, the Government report indicates the two critical errors committed by Electricity that day: poor programming and insufficient capacity for dynamic control of tensions. On the one hand, the number of thermal groups scheduled to regulate the tension was lower than that of previous weeks. On the other, the operator did not replace a group in the southern zone that had been out of service the previous afternoon. It was where the waterfall caused the three disconnections They made the system fall like a nipe castle. Following the protocols was the third “mistake” that, without being considered bad praxis, the operator committed. According to the report, Red Eléctrica made three decisions to reduce system oscillations that rose the tension: 1) increase the misery of the network, connecting several 400 kV lines previously disconnected; 2) reduce exports to France and Portugal; and 3) disconnect several reactances, equipment that absorbs reactive energy to lower the tension. The result was the waterfall that triggered the automatic disconnection. In the other corner of the ring, Red Electric. Faced with the conclusions of the Government, Red Electrica has submitted its own report and a closed defense of his performance. Their managers denied any planning error and aimed directly at the electric: “If the third -party centrals had regulated the tension as they should, the blackout had not occurred,” said Concha Sánchez, director of operation of the system, at the press conference on Wednesday. Electric Red defends that its programming was enough. That calculations and technical restrictions were made “whenever all groups comply with the obligations imposed by current regulations.” And that this would have been the right plan if the others had fulfilled their part. Who are the others? The electric. Operator’s analysis determines that disconnections that caused the blackout They should not happen: the plants shot without the tension reaching the ranges required by the regulations. They coincide with the government in which the generation “did not comply with the established obligations” to regulate the tension and “did not absorb the reactive energy” that was obliged to absorb. As a cake, the president of Redeia, Beatriz Corredor, accused the electric Do not facilitate all the required information or to do it without sufficient quality for a technical analysis. On the other side of the quadrilateral, the electric. Large electric companies (Iberdrola, Endesa and EDP) categorically deny any failure in their facilities. Its version is that the protection systems acted “as established by the electrical regulations in the face of a serious situation of network instability.” That the disconnections were automatic and correct to protect the equipment from a network that was already unstable. And that its centrals followed at all times the instructions of the system operator. The electric They also accused the government of “issuing public judgments that only result in the confusion and hinder of the process”, and claimed to Red Electric to share all the technical information transparently. The employer assures that Electric detected tension problems “Before the incident occurs” and communicated them to Red Electric. Problems that, according to the employer’s version, were discarded by the operator. A significant fact is that the report presented on Wednesday by Red Electrica focuses on events after 12:03 of April 28, qualifying the previous facts as “non -relevant.” A statement criticized by analysts, since the government’s own report details “atypical” volatility in tensions throughout the morning and previous weeks. In the words of the electric, the operator cannot act as “judge and part” of the investigation. And in the corner that remains, consumers. Those who We will pay at the light bill The cost of restoring electricity with synchronous generators, later recovering The cheapest renewable energy. Those who are at the mercy of little transparent data to choose who to believe in this war of accusations, whose backdrop is the foreseeable legal battle for compensation. The blackout not only affected Spain, but also Portugal and partially to France, which anticipates millionaire claims, which in turn explains the defensive position of all those involved and the meticulous construction of their respective stories. The great blackout of April 28 was not a simple technical failure. It was the collapse of a system that operated on the edge, evidencing a chain of vulnerabilities That, once the responsibilities were purified, it will have to be corrected. Another put to the point that We will undoubtedly end up noticing In the light invoice. Image | Marvel, Freepik, Xataka In Xataka | After the blackout, a proposal gains strength: dividing Spain into three price areas for light

You already know how to turn CO2 into electricity and batteries

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The new space race will not end until someone mount a self -sufficient colony on Mars, provided A company of such caliber Be available to our hand. For now, the Chinese Academy has been investigating how to generate and store energy without more raw material than the one that offers In situ The red planet. Convert the Martian atmosphere into electricity. The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has designed A pioneering system to feed the future human bases of Mars with energy from its own atmosphere. According to the study published in Science BulletinChinese thermal and energy engineers started from the Brayton cycle, on which the land gas turbines are based, but replacing noble gases such as xenon with the gases of the Martian atmosphere, dominated in 95% by carbon dioxide. When using a available fluid In situthe circuit can be filled after any leak and avoids the logistics nightmare of having to send tons of gas packaged from the earth. But the most surprising thing is that it would achieve a conversion efficiency of up to 22%. Take advantage of the atmosphere to store it. In addition to the Brayton generator that breathes CO2, another team from the same university He designed a battery of lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-Co2) that uses the CO2 of the atmosphere of Mars as an active discharge agent. It is nothing more than a proof of concept, but in laboratory conditions at 0 ºC, the cells of this battery reached an energy density of 373 Wh Kg⁻¹ and a durability of 1,375 hours, the equivalent of two marian months. It could be combined with solar panels, burning CO2 at night or during dust storms, as a solution the intermission of solar energy. Technology is similar to Lithium-Aire batteries, only instead of air, absorb the CO2 of the atmosphere and release energy to feed rovers and helicopters. It would be necessary to try it under variable pressure, radiation and fine dust that sneaks into all Martian mechanisms to approve. China hopes to make history on Mars with Tianwen-3. China’s space program goes at a vertigo speed and these theoretical concepts could be tested on Mars in robotic missions before what we expect. The Tianwen-3 probe of the CNSA Space Agency will mark the next landing of the Asian country on Mars. With a launch planned for 2028, it is the mission that expects to bring to the earth the First Martian soil samples after the cancellation of Mars Sample Return of the NASA. Whether in this or any next robotic mission, seeing a closed, compact and filling generator running on Mars next to a CO2 -based storage system would be a giant jump towards that hypothetical future in which the human being will be a multiphenetary species. Image | POT In Xataka | No one has advanced NASA in the exploration of other planets from the USSR. China plans to do it even in Neptune

In case we had not had enough problems in the electricity network, a “severe” solar storm has come to complicate it

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The closeness of the Pico de Activity of the last solar cycle implies stirred times in the field of “spatial meteorology.” And we have seen one of the most important during these days, a “severe” geomagnetic storm caused by this activity. Geomagnetic storm. The last two days have been days of “intense” solar activity. The geomagnetic storm has reached a Kp = 8 index, which implies that it has been a “severe” storm, from G4 category (On a scale that goes to G5). The value of the index has descended since then: the last data offered by the NOAA spatial meteorological prediction (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) indicates that the value Average Index KP In the last three hours it has been kp = 6. Despite this, spatial time is still scrambled and According to forecasts He will continue to be until tomorrow. An ejection of coronal mass. According to He explained yesterday The Spanish Space Agency through a statement, the origin of this activity is in a high -speed coronal mass ejection (CME), associated solar fulguration of class M8.2 and with origin in the Ar4100 active region. KP 8. What does that mean of kp = 8? The K Geomagnetic Index measures disruptions in the land magnetic field and is used to characterize the magnitude of geomagnetic storms, especially through the planetary index K or KP Index. The latter uses a series of magnetometers distributed in stations located in various parts of the planet. The indices above kp = 5 are associated with a specific degree in the geomagnetic storm scale Employed by the NOAA SWPC, being G1 (minor) the smallest category on the scale and G5 (extreme) the category that denotes the strongest storms, those of index Kp = 9. A G4 storm. The storm recorded on Sunday, with a Kp = 4 index led the center to alert a “severe” or G4 geomagnetic storm. In your noticethe SWPC pointed out that, in addition to intense northern lights and lower latitudes than usual, possible impacts on infrastructure and networks, including problems with satellites and loss of precision in the GPS. The Category events They usually imply possible problems with voltage control that can also cause “mitigable” problems in electrical networks. At space vehicles, the SWPC indicates that these storms are associated with possible monitoring problems that require future corrections. Finally, other possible impacts are on the spread of HF radio signals and low frequency radio navigation. An active solar cycle. The situation has stabilized With ups and downs And, although the last one average three -hour data from the KP index is 6, the SWPC has already reduced the intensity of the storm to G1, or minor storm. The last months have been revolts as far as spatial meteorology is concerned. In October 2024, A similar situation He brought spectacular dawn. According to estimates From the experts we are already after the peak of activity of solar cycle 25, but we have not yet moved away much so the solar activity remains intense. Perhaps this is not the last storm of these characteristics that we see in the coming months. In Xataka | We have detected the exact date on which the most brutal solar storm occurred in history. Thanks to the trees Image | Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho) / SWPC/NOA

The solar energy that does work without electricity

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The blackout of April 28 left Spain and Portugal without light, even surprising those who had solar panels at home. How is it possible? The answer is in the connection From facilities to the electricity grid, but there is a solution that comes from Seville. Short. The Toscano company has developed Combi Max, a differential that, when it detects a supply cut, electrically isolates the house of the rest of the network and allows you to continue using the electricity generated by the solar panels. Also, like have indicated on their websitethere is another more complete version and with extra protection against overtops and overloads. More in depth. The device developed in Seville works isolating the electrical installation of the house when the light goes, which allows us to continue using the solar energy generated at that time. In fact, its effectiveness is not only theoretical: during the blackout of April 28, several users managed to maintain the supply thanks to this system. “Correos have reached us by thanking us,” said Luis Toscano, founder of the company, In an interview with the sixth column. There are limitations. It can only be used as long as there is sunlight and the installation is generating electricity. In addition, it is not suitable for feeding high consumption appliances such as furnaces, hobs or electric cars. On the other hand, it does allow the essential elements of the home, such as the fridge, the lighting or the load of the mobile, which can make a big difference during a light cut. But it does not replace a battery. It is a great solution for the day and for moments of blackout with sun, but does not replace a battery system. For that reason, if you want to keep the supply also during the night or in cloudy days, it is necessary have energy storage. Having panels is not enough. The blackout has been a warning: it is not enough to generate energy, we must also know how to manage it. This new device, Combi Max, is a step in that address. In an increasingly electrified world it is a big step. Image | Unspash Xataka | The signals were there: Europe detected the blackout oscillations in Spain but did not know how to anticipate collapse

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