National

If someone believed that national tourism had entered “crisis” this summer, Aena has something to say: at all

by

If Google and Deloitte give in the nail, in a few years Spain will be the great resort of the world. According to Your calculations In 2040 the country will receive around 110 million foreign visitors, even exceeding France or the US. Until then every summer is a fire test for national tourism. This in particular there are voices that already suggest A slowdown in destinations as relevant as Tenerife wave Costa del Sol. There is still a lot of campaign ahead to know if it will be so, but for now AENA’s data show a quite different photo. What suggests His July balance It is a record summer. What happened? That Aena has just published A balance of passengers that are especially interesting for two reasons. The first, because it offers us the ‘photo’ of July, the first strong month of the summer campaign. The second reason is that these figures point to a considerable increase in displacements, which clashes with The voices that over the last weeks They have detected signals of weakening in Spanish tourism, at least In certain regions. Aena’s report does not differentiate between those who move for vacations or other reasons, such as work, studies or to visit relatives. Nor does it distinguish between national and foreign passengers. In any case, another interesting approach provides to take the temperature to the tourism sector in July. 10 main airports July passengers % with respect to 2024 Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas 6,170,130 +0.6% Barcelona-El Prat Jt 5,540,010 +2.9% Palma de Mallorca 4,594,987 -0.1% Malaga-Costa del Sol 2,866,642 +7.8% Alicante-Elche Miguel Hdez. 2.106,991 +5.9% Ibiza 1,446,589 +0.9% Gran Canaria 1,286,184 +6.4% Valencia 1,132,402 +4.2% Tenerife-Sur 1,094,961 +1.4% Lanzarote-César Manrique 798,998 +7.3% Total Aena’s network in Spain 32,765,284 +2.7% What do the data say? That July 2025 was a month of record. The network of terminals managed by AENA on Spanish soil accounted for 32.76 million of travelers. The number of flights amounted to 268,034. They are, respectively, 2.7% and 3.1% more than during the same period of 2024 and mark a milestone in the historical registry of the group. “Passenger and operations figures represent an absolute monthly record, which makes last July the best month in history at the airports of the Aena network in Spain,” concrete The operator. Is there more data? Yes. In the report AENA does not detail why users, their destinations fly or if they are national or foreign travelers, but it does require how traffic has evolved in their airports. At the head in absolute terms, Barajas is located, in Madrid, with 6.17 million travelers in July. The most interesting thing, however, are not the total figures of users, but how they have evolved compared to July 2024, a record year For Spanish tourism. He passenger flow Barajas for example grew 0.6% and Barcelona-the Prat 2.9%. In general, the airports of the country’s main tourist destinations experienced an increase in activity in July. In that of Malaga-Costa del Sol, the flow of travelers shot 7.8%, in Alicante 5.9%, in Ibiza 0.9%, in Gran Canaria 6.4%, in Tenerife South 1.4%and in Tenerife North 8.6%. Of course not everyone grew. ‘Palma’s airfield, where the passenger transfer fell 0.1%, Santiago, who suffered a 12.4%cut, or Santander and Vigo, which scored setbacks of 0.6%and 6.5%, respectively. Are they high data? Yes. Both in fact that some terminals have pulverized their historical maximums. “During the past month there has been an absolute record of passengers at the airports of Barajas, El Prat, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao and Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de la Laguna”, They clarify from Aenawhich also specifies that there are 16 airfields that have registered their best July. Why is it important? For several reasons. The main one because in summer a good part of the displacements are by leisure, which gives us another brushstroke to understand how the tourist season marches. The second reason is that Aena’s figures collide in part with others Shared by the hoteliers that suggest a summer with less activity and income than in 2024. The Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (AEHCOS) I noticed recently That July occupation levels were very similar to those of 2024 (87.82%, 1.16% above last year) but came accompanied by less income: the gross impact per customer fell according to their calculations from 198.61 to 157.18 euros. Facing August, the group expects the average occupation to be 4.57 percentage points lower than that of 2024, so it would stay at 88.32%. Are there more falls? Yes. The one on the Costa del Sol is not the only message that points to a less generous summer campaign than that of 2024. The Tenerife press It echoed These days that the establishments integrated in Ashotel closed Julio with an average occupancy level of 81.97% in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is a high percentage that also improves the forecast of reservations that hoteliers handled in mid -June, but still almost two percentage points below July 2024. In Palma de Mallorca the employer speaks Not so much a fall in the flow of tourists as if of the spending in hospitality. What is the conclusion? Touch wait. Soon the INE will publish another interesting clue to take the temperature of the tourist campaign: its statistics of Hotel situation. At the moment the last available data, of June, reflects a 2.1% increase in overnight stays and an increase in both the occupancy level and, above all, in the rates. Waiting for the tourist balance to be outlined and knowing if Spain will finally reach this year the milestone of the 100 million tourists foreigners, there are some clear trends. The main is that the Spanish sector grows largely thanks to the flow of foreign visitors. Aena’s data does not allow to know if July passengers are Spanish or travelers from other countries, but we know that in 2024 foreign demand played A fundamental role In the balance of hotels. 7.5% grew … Read more

Two 19 -year -old kids put Spanish national security with a bot and a telegram channel. The reason: they bored themselves

by

It happened a few days ago. The National Police had arrested two young people by the Data filtration of Pedro Sánchez and other high positions of the State. A massive filtration that, In police wordsis a “very serious threat to national security.” Behind all this there is no large group of perfectly coordinated hackers, only two 19 -year -old Canarian kids and a bot that they sold on Telegram. @Akkaspace and @pakito. They are the nicks of the two authors of the filtration. Yoel (Akkaspace), the main responsible, is a computer student and was arrested at his home on July 1. Next to him also stopped Pakito (Cristian), who was aware of his friend’s activities and would have participated in helping him promote them. Yesterday July 3 They were releasedalthough they are being investigated for an alleged crime of terrorism and will have to appear in the played twice a month. A bot. It is the tool they have used to extract the data. The bot was in charge of tracking previously compromised databases. That is, they have taken advantage of existing vulnerabilities in companies and institutions. In Declarations to Eldiariosecurity expert Rafael López, says they have used OSINT, OR INTELLIGENCE OF OPEN SOURCESand it has not been a hacking as such. Yoel himself said in an interview he gave on Twitch with his face covered: With a bot that I have, with which I have taken everything basically. I take databases, Indexo, and people, if you buy the bot, searching for a full name, a phone number or a ID, you can access all the information. This is how I have done politicians. Filtration. The investigation began weeks ago in Telegram. @Akkaspace and @pakito used a channel with more than 90,000 members to start spreading personal data from public figures, although later they were closed and used other more minority channels. In the beginning it only affected seven personalities, but little by little they were filtering more data, getting to involve the president of the Government himself. The data contained in the filtration includes birth dates, telephones, ID numbers and even homes, although some were apparently outdated. Motivation. “We are two boring kids,” said Yoel on Twitch, which denies that there is an ideological motivation behind the filtration. “And as the issue of corruption is being uncovered lately, why don’t we get the information from those politicians and publish it? It is a lesson,” he said. Although it is not clear what led him to filter the data, everything indicates that there would be an economic motivation. Yoel sold the databases and the bot itself with which it extracted the data, which it charged in Bitcoins. An undercover agent. This is how they hunt. The National Audience car includes that an undercover agent “has managed to buy from the investigated access to the database that sold for 60 euros that have been paid in Bitcoins. “The second investigated, Cristian or @Pakito would be in charge of managing the cryptocurrency portfolio where they received the payments, although it has not transcended how much they won. Images | National Police in X In Xataka | Alcasec is not any youth hacker: he set up a Spanish criminal infrastructure that even had customer service bot

The National Police has arrested Major Cibernarco in Europe in Barcelona. And he has left a video message for cybercriminals

by

A 30 -year -old German citizen coordinated from Barcelona the largest drug market in the Dark Web European Archetyp Market has been functioning as an online narcotic supermarket for more than five years. Now has been arrested by the National Police. Why is it important. This platform had achieved what few illegal markets achieve: scale, longevity and reputation. It has reached 612,000 registered users and 3,200 active vendors. It had become a key piece of European drug trafficking. The figures: The business volume has reached 250 million euros in transactions. The store has marketed 17,000 lots of narcotics, from heroin and fentanyl to cannabis and synthetic drugs. Payments were made exclusively in Moneroa cryptocurrency specially valued by its anonymity guarantee. In 2018 we count on Xataka How easy we found to access this type of marketswhere in addition to drugs we could find weapons or guns. In detail. The administrator, known as “Roger” and with multiple digital alias, directed a complex structure. The servers were located in the Netherlands. He operated from Catalonia. His profile fit with the new drug trafficker: technologically sophisticated, businessly efficient, mediately active. Message that appears in the domains intervened in this operation. Image: Eurojust. Between bambalins. Operation Deep Sentinel involved 300 agents from six European countries. The German authorities first identified the suspect, but needed international cooperation to dismantle the entire network. Technical complexity required specialists in Dark Web and cryptocurrency analysis. Archetyp had filled the void left by other dismantled markets such as Dream Market and Silk Road. His longevity contrasted with the typical short life of these platforms, usually closed in months by the authorities. In the video of the operation, published by the National Police, you can see the multiple currencies that the detainee was handled at his home: Deepen. The operation included important seizures: high -end vehicles, luxury watches, 7.8 million euros in cryptocurrencies and several computer devices. The authorities confiscated complete digital infrastructure. Security forces have left A notice and a video message in the intervened domainswarning that the anonymity of the Dark Web It is not impregnable. In Xataka | One week on the Deep Web. This is what I found Outstanding image | National Police

A neighbor from Zaragoza received a foreign card and did not hesitate to take advantage of it. The National Police soon found it

by

A foreign card, a cap, some glasses and loose days of May were enough. A 58 -year -old man, a resident in Zaragoza, took advantage of the fact that a banking entity sent a card to his home – which was no longer that of the headline – and used it to make several extractions of money. In total, almost 6,000 euros in cash. But it was the head of the head that detected the movements and filed the complaint. The National Police soon acts. The card did not belong. The legitimate head resides abroad and was his brother, who still lives in Spain, who detected the strange positions in the account and filed the complaint with the National Police. What seemed a simple error in the shipment resulted in an investigation for improper appropriation. As explained by Rubén Nido, official spokesman for the body, In a video broadcast by La8 Zaragozathe agents began to follow the trail of the reimbursements. Five days, several extractions and an improvised costume. Between the eight and May 13, the man made several extractions at different ATMs of Zaragoza. He made it covered by a cap and with glasses to hinder his identification in security cameras. The costume was not enough. The images were key to binding ends and locating it. He was arrested in the immediate vicinity of his home, the same place where he had received the card days before. At this time it is known that he was brought to court and declared before the competent authority. It should be noted that the suspect already had a history of similar events. Now he has been released with charges while the process continues its course. What began with a simple postal error has ended, again, before a court. The Criminal Code is clear. According to Europa Presscurrent legislation contemplates this type of situations as a crime. Use a bank card to the detriment of its owner or a third can lead to a punishment between six months and three years in prison. What happened in Zaragoza is not an isolated case. In Zamora, a neighbor of Benavente was convicted after receiving a bizum of 20 euros by mistake and not return it, despite having been warned. The Provincial Court confirmed that its refusal also constituted undue appropriation. Result: mandatory return, fine of 180 euros and judicial costs. Images | Chiara Daneluzzi | Eduardo Soares | National Police In Xataka | The Meta Ray-Ban have turned anyone into spy for 329 euros. Barcelona’s detainee is only the first visible case

Frankish calls are so problematic in Spain that even national banks have moved token. ING has been the first

by

Spain has a problem with fraudulent so -called. From those that They get through companies like indeed to offer us alleged jobs to incessant calls for commercial purposes. Such is the focus that is put in Spain with spam and scam, that the Government has had to move cardforcing these to have to be done with prefix numbers 900 and 800, prohibiting conventional 600 and 700. If this measure will be sufficient or not to determine the time. At the moment, the situation is at the point that even Spanish banking has begun to move card. Who calls me? Is the name of The tool that has launched ING Direct in Spain. To use it, you have to access its application (it is focused for customers of it and not as an open service), and enter the corresponding aid section – who calls me, the phone number we believe suspicious. Ing will match whether or not the number corresponds to one of its agents, showing you at the time if it should be reported by fraud attempt or if you can save that number as an official contact. It is important to note that this security measure only serves the numbers that ING has registered. Other SCAM attempts cannot be detected from here. It is not the first attempt. Monzoa British digital bank implemented a different measure, but also focused on fraudulent so -called. If during a call we acceded to the bank’s app, it showed us a message indicating that it was not they who were calling us. A quite effective way to avoid making any transaction if someone gets through an agent. For the bad luck of the Spaniards, There is no Spanish bank who is doing something similar. Why is government measures not enough. The measures materialized by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function are an important first step, but not a universal solution. No one prevents scammers and unregistered companies for calling for fraudulent purposes from conventional numbers, through Sim Swapping o Use of disposable Sim cards. According to the Ministry, since the Government took the initiative to end the so -called fraudulent, 14 million fraudulent calls have been blocked in Spain, since operators have the obligation to block numbers that do not correspond to any user or service. What is being done. Google has been betting on anti spam functions for years and anti -arud in your phone app. This, automatically block the calls thatprior analysis by AI, may have indications of fraud. He does the same with messages, warning us when the sender is suspicious. On the side of iOS, the wwdc 25 was the great moment for iOS 26 Begin to try to compete until now basic on Android. One of them is that of incoming calls from unknown numbers (anyone, there is no analysis of fraudulent behaviors). From this version, the user can choose that they all leakes so that the interlocutor is obliged to explain who he is and why he calls. It is killing gunflowsbut an aggressive and powerful filter. It is not the only open front. Fraudulent calls are not the only method of popular attack. SMS are another entrance door to scams And, although Google’s app blocks some, They are still a deception of the most common. There are no magical solutions. Spam and SCAM have it more difficult than ever, but the rear doors are inevitable. As we always recommend in Xataka, the sender, URL to which he directs the message, and never give personal data by phone, should be proven more than once. Image | ING In Xataka | Spain pays less than ever in cash and yet there are more and more tickets circulating. We have a suspect

In his effort for national manufacturing, the US has threatened Samsung. It will serve as little

by

Or Apple manufactures the iPhone in the United States, or the Trump administration will impose an additional 25%tariff. The last weeks of May are starring New threats to technology companiessome that They will serve as little in the case of Apple. As much as a new tariff is imposed, the company is still more profitable to manufacture in India than in the United States. It is not the only one under the spotlight. Trump has recently stated that “Samsung and any other that manufactures this product” (the smartphone) will face tariffs. The message is clear: if it is sold in the United States, you want to be manufactured in the United States. Samsung, under the spotlight. In the general photography of best -selling mobile brands in the world, there is not much beyond Chinese brands. Samsung and Apple are the main protagonists, with a minority participation of giants such as Google or Motorola. Trump has made it clear that all telephone manufacturer that manufactures out of the United States will have to face new tariffs. And there is not one that manufactures there. Vietnam as refuge. The history of the Samsung supply chain is one in which China ceased to be present more than ten years ago. The company made a strategic bet for Vietnam, its investments in the country in 2024 exceeded 220 million dollars, and employs more than 100,000 people in which, for years, it was its main refuge against the commercial war between China and the United States. The South Korean giant production chain is strategically diversified between countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil or Indonesia, having closed its last Chinese phone factories in 2019. The possible impact. Samsung is in a situation similar to Apple’s. Currently, plants in Vietnam are more than 50% of their global production volume. This country has a minimum labor costof just three dollars an hour in electronics. Moving the production chain to the United States is simply unassumable, due to labor costs, factor and R&D, degree of automation in Vietnamese production and lack of a pool of thousands of technicians willing to work in the shifts that make possible the current rhythm of Samsung in Vietnam. A tariff hurts, but less than moving the production chain. A 25% tariff would destroy the current margins of Samsung and force both to absorb a certain part of them and to raise the price of the product in the United States. It is still a better plan to allocate decades to rebuild from scratch an infrastructure and technical specialization in which they have been allocating millions of dollars for more than ten years. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Samsung had it difficult with its exynos processors. Google and Xiaomi have only aggravated their situation

Japan went to South Korea as a desperate measure for the lack of rice. They have not even solved a national emergency

by

To understand what is happening in Japan we must go back in time. The summer of 2024 left A perfect storm On the basis of the nation’s diet: rice. A unprecedented shortage of grains in his own fields began to leave No stock to shops. Then, the tourist boom has duplicate the problem turning it into a historical crisis reflected in a fact: 30% more expensive was being paid. Given the danger to running without a basic pillar, the decision was made “Release” tons of your reservations. What nobody could anticipate. Foreign rice. In April, La Nación opted for another unprecedented decision in 25 years: Import rice From South Korea, an unthinkable measure in a society Historically reluctant to the foreign grain, but that was forced to make its customs more flexible to the vertiginous increase in the price of the national grain. With prices that They doubled their value Regarding the previous year (reaching 4,214 yuan by 5 kg in April) and with a government response that fails to contain the climbing, consumers have begun to look beyond their borders. Not just that. The Aeon chain He also announced which will begin to sell American rice Calrose starting next month, with a price 10% lower than the Japanese grain, a decision that could mark a turning point in consumption habits. In front of national rice. The arrival of South Korean rice, sold both online and in supermarkets, although even in small volumes (just two tons with another twenty on the way), marked a point of cultural and economic inflection. The nationalist preference for local rice, which had condemned to failure Previous attempts such as that of Thai rice in 1993, has yielded to the urgency of more accessible prices. The Guardian told Cases of testimonies such as that of Miki Nihei diner, who said not to notice any difference when eating Californian rice, and revealed a change in public perception: the quality of foreign grain was no longer a sufficient reason to resist, when the pocket suffers. The rice becomes a politician. Now, a few weeks after crucial elections for the Upper House, the government of the Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru ishiba is on the edge of political collapse Given the growing discomfort by the exorbitant increase in the price of rice, central food in Japanese food. With inflation that has reached the most symbolic product in the country, citizens have expressed their frustration in surveys such as that of the Kyodo agency, which places the approval of the Ishiba cabinet in a minimum of 27.4%marking a fall of more than five points in just one month. The pressure intensifies not only from the opposition, but also from its own Democratic Liberal Party (PLD), already weakened after lose most In the lower house last fall. THE DEBATE ON THE Impost to consumption Of 10%, that the government refuses to reduce despite popular claims, is emerging as the decisive axis of the electoral contest of July, with almost three quarters of voters asking for their total or partial cuts, especially in food. A late remedy. As we said at the beginning, in an attempt to contain the crisis, the government decided to release rice from the strategic reserves In March, a normally reserved measure For natural disasterswhich failed to stop the price increase. The price price in supermarkets reached practically Double of what cost a year ago. Although the price dropped minimally after the release of the first 300,000 tons, the results were disappointing. To reinforce his strategy, the executive announced the launch of another 300,000 tons Additional until July, with the novelty that part of these items will overcome wholesalers to reach the points of sale faster. However, More than 87% From respondents believe that these actions are insufficient, and citizens do not trust that trade negotiations with the United States focused among other issues in rice imports will be resolved in favor of Japan. From there to that leap For the search for “foreigner” rice In South Korea. A political fire. The theme has become more violent in recent days. It happened when the Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Taku Eto, unleashed A political storm and socially by declare that “he has never had to buy rice” thanks to the gifts he receives from his supporters. The phrase, pronounced during a fundraising party, was disseminated by the Kyodo and quickly replicated agency by other meansgenerating a wave of indignation in social networks where thousands of citizens, faced at record prices of the Japanese basic food, demanded their immediate resignation. Eto, visibly pressed, apologized the next day before the journalists, claiming that “he had exaggerated to please the public” and that his wife, after reprimanding him on the phone, reminded him that she Yes Buy Rice When it ends at home. Thus, he avoided responding if he will present his resignation, leaving the tension generated in full countdown to the key elections of the upper house in July. A market that does not supply. In short, the Rice search Out of the nation is not (alone) a commercial turn that responds only to the registration of the national product, but (also) to the suspicion of hoarding by distributors, logistics bottlenecks and a Shot demand For booming tourism. Given this panorama, the image of ishiba as an effective manager It wobblesand its refusal to touch the consumption tax is interpreted as disconnection with the real needs of citizenship. The rice crisis is not only forcing logistics and commercial adjustments, but also raises questions about the viability of food self -sufficiency in Japan, a country that for decades has shielded its agriculture with subsidies, tariffs and a national identity speech linked to the consumption of domestic rice. Suddenly, the rice not only feeds: it also marks the measure of discontent. Image | Ilo Asia-Pacific In Xataka | Japan had used its rice reserve against earthquakes or tsunamis. Now is your weapon against the price escalation In Xataka | In Japan there … Read more

The United States national dish faces a worrying future if tariffs are maintained: hamburgers

by

The commercial war between China and the United States showed a problem for Beijing: they like, much, the American soybeans, to the point that each year they import Millions of tons With the direction of Asia. Of commercial conflict a Unexpected winner: Brazil. Now, the actors themselves appear in another scenario derived from the commercial war. Americans can pass For many things, but do not take away a good barbecue. The commercial war has opened an uncertain scenario for devour meat. Global hamburger in war. Told this weekend The New York Times that, curiously, most of the hamburgers consumed in the United States are not thence. Despite his image as a national emblem, the American hamburger is, in fact, the result of a very wide international supply chain. The ground meat that feeds barbecues, school canteens and fast food chains usually combine local meat with imports, especially and first of Brazil, today The greatest exporter of beef in the world. This interdependence has been exposed after the imposition of generalized tariffs by Trump, whose measures have reconfigured the World Meat Trade And the basic products that millions of Americans consume daily. Brazil, between two giants. In the midst of this commercial war, Brazil emerges (again) as a great beneficiary. Its meat, produced at low cost thanks to huge extensions of grass and cheap labor, has seen shoot your demand both in the United States and China, two economies that alone fail to satisfy the appetite Growing for lean proteins. The imports of Brazilian meat by Washington grew more than 50% In a single year, reaching a record of 1.3 billion dollars, even despite the 10% tariff that raises the final price for consumers. Meanwhile, China, also facing US tariffs, has reduced your purchases There and redoubled his commitment to Brazil, where almost half of his beef is already from the South American country. Molina meat in the eye of the hurricane. This (re) accommodation of commercial flows has caused a Price increase In the global market: Brazilian flesh has become more expensive about 20% Only since April. American meat companies, trapped between the need to maintain affordable prices and the rise in costs, have begun to Mix pork In their hamburgers to reduce the impact to the consumer. Meanwhile, Brazilian producers such as Grupo Fribal plan expand your herds In tens of thousands of heads to take advantage of a demand that, although buoyant, demands time and resources to materialize, in a context of recurrent droughts and logistic saturation in Brazilian ports. Usa dependence. The key in everything is that, although the United States remains a great producer of beef, its specialization is In the premium cuts like him Rib-Eye or the Filet Mignonnot in the type of lean and economic flesh that feeds mass consumption. Therefore, to make their hamburgers, US processors need to mix local meat more fat with imported lean varieties, and Brazil appears. As The economist explains Agrícola Glynn Tonsor in the Times, “in the United States we consume more ground meat than we produce.” The problem? That this structural dependence leaves exposed consumers: ground meat prices have increased 43% in five yearsand they are expected to continue going up while inflation forces homes to leave expensive cuts and return to the basics. All this, at a time when the American livestock census is in minimum of 73 years for droughts and rise in the price of the feed. Brazil and the consumer. Explained the NYT That while China reinforces its ties with Brazil after revoking licenses of more than 390 US processors in retaliation, President Lula tries to maintain diplomatic balances between his two main commercial partners. However, his advisor Celso Amorim Lets meridianly clear: China today offers “more opportunities and less risks” than the United States. Before the new scenario, Brazilian producers prepare to Fill the void left by Americans, although they recognize that expanding production requires time. With a Chinese middle class increasingly fond of the steak and The Hot Pots of beef, and an American demand that does not find substitutes on the same scale, Brazil is positioned as the winning epicenter of a meat trade in full transformation. Of course, with a “but” in the result that summarize very well The president of the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporters, Roberto Perosa: the ranchers are winning, but it will be US consumers who literally “eat the invoice.” Image | Pxhere In Xataka | The price of beef has shot. And that threatens to turn hamburgers into the new seafood In Xataka | The great crisis of “false flesh”: McDonald’s has renounced the McPlant and Beyond Meat is sinking

Having solar panels at home sounds very good in case of national blackout. The problem is that they don’t work

by

The national blackout that Spain has suffered It has been historicalbut has also sown the doubt. While the vast majority of citizens ran out of light, in the street there was “life” in some supermarkets or marques that made the use of other renewable alternatives. Surely also, today more than ever many will ask about the need to have a solar installation in their home, which leads us to another question: how does a network of domestic panels work before a national blackout? Installation in normal conditions. Before talking about the case of a blackout as the one that occurred in Spain, it is convenient to explain the most basic of A “standard” installation In a typical home. In most cases, solar panels capture the radiation of the sun and generate what we call DC (DC). This current passes through an investor that converts it in turn in alternating current (CA), and that is precisely what we use in homes. In Spain and in almost all countries, most solar facilities are connected to the electricity network (known systems as on-Grid). This allows, on the one hand, to consume solar energy directly in the house. On the other, pour the surplus to the network (which entitles economic compensation, such as the net balance or Simplified compensation). Finally, of course, it allows you to receive electricity from the network when there is not enough solar generation (for example, at night or on cloudy days). The problem occurs when there is a situation like that occurred yesterday. Installation in blackouts. When you have a photovoltaic installation in the house of only panels and there is a blackout, something contradictory but very important happens: even if you have solar panels working, the sky is sunny and the beginning of the day, your house is also It is left without electricity. As? Yes, this occurs by security regulations (for example, in Europe under the standard VDE 0126-1-1 and similar), all solar investors connected to the network must detect the loss of tension and turn off immediately, is what is called Anti-Isla protection. The reason? The reason for this “cut” is to protect network maintenance technicians: if there were thousands of houses by sending electricity to a supposedly “dead” network, it could be lethal for workers They are at that time repairing the failure. Therefore, if you have only solar panels connected to the network, you cannot use electricity during a blackout. Your solar panels are automatically disconnected. There is no more. The solution: batteries. If you also have batteries, the thing changes, although here the situation varies depending on the type of investor and configuration you have. If you have hybrid investors (solar + battery), there are modern investors that already allow to continue operating in what is called Island or back-up mode. This means that when they detect a blackout, they are physically disconnected from the network and come to feed only your house using solar energy and energy stored in your batteries. In addition, there are also systems for backup investors (The so-called back-up inverters), where a separate system is used that can feed a specific part of the house (for example, fridge, essential lights or internet). One More Thing. But even so, for this to work you need lithium or lead batteries properly sizeda hybrid investor compatible with operation in island mode or an inverter with backup function (Back-UP), a automatic cutting system that separates your home from the public network in case of blackout guaranteeing safety, and finally an electrical panel prepared to isolate non-essential loads (for example, it makes no sense to keep the electric oven or air conditioning on if the energy is limited). In any case and to place all this in perspective in the Spanish landscape, only 33% of facilities Current domestic lots in Spain include batteries. This means that most households with solar panels would continue to suffer electric cuts during a blackout like the one that occurred yesterday. The reasons are very varied, but the extra cost of investment of them after the solar installation (already large) is key. The promise of self -supply. All this leads to a final question: Is it possible to be self -sufficient (energetically) in Spain? The short response is no. The promise of solar self -supply on the peninsula is based on taking advantage of the high solar radiation (Spain receives on average between 1,600 and 2,000 kWh/m²/year) to generate clean energy and reduce dependence on the electricity grid, especially in single -family homes. Thanks to photovoltaic self -consumption and the Price drop Of the solar panels (more than 80% have fallen in the last decade), today it is technically possible to cover between 60% and 80% of the annual consumption of an average house in Spain only with solar energy, and in some cases, almost 100% If appropriate storage batteries are installed (although with the network hitch). The problem. However, self -supply has important limits: solar production is intermittent (there is no generation of night and lowers a lot in winter or cloudy days), the batteries remain expensive (between 4,000 and 9,000 euros a complete domestic installation) and its capacity only allows a few hours or days of autonomy without network. Plus: We already said it, the current legislation requires that the systems connected to the network be disconnected in blackouts if they are not equipped to function in Isla mode, which implies that, without a specific design (and of large disbursement), even with solar panels, you could run out of electricity in general cuts. Image | Pxhere In Xataka | What is the “energy zero” and why the supply can go suddenly but it takes hours to recover In Xataka | Spain is dark: a general blackout has left us all without light

In Spain, cutting urban trees looks like national sport. These Swiss have just demonstrated that it is a mistake

by

There is only a handful of things that we know for sure about cities and one of them is that trees are key. And it is that the exposure to green spaces (and there the trees enter) “is associated with lower risks of mortality.” It’s simple, it’s clear, it’s easy. And, despite this, we do not take note. Wait, wait a moment … how? Yes and There are many reasons To do this: trees filter air pollutants, provide shadow, reduce ambient temperature in warm climates and encourage people to spend more time outdoors. They are a cheap and relatively accessible system to improve people’s lives. But, as I say, when planting trees it is not so easy. Among other things because there is no space. How can we plant trees to get maximum benefit? That is what They wondered Zurich ETH researchers. To do this, they examined high resolution data of the tree canopy to determine “the structure of the green tree spaces” within a radius of 500 meters of the place of residence of a person. Of six million people, actually. AND They crossed this urban data with health and mortality information from the neighborhoods of Europe and Asia that analyzed. What have you discovered? That both tree coverage in residential areas and its spatial distribution correlates with mortality. In fact, researchers They realized that the risk of mortality was “significantly lower in people living in neighborhoods with extensive, adjacent and well -interconnected areas of tree cups than in people who live in areas with less areas of fragmented tree glasses and with complex geometries.” This seems true, in addition, if we discount other factors such as age, wealth, gender or educational level. It is true that the data are correlational and, therefore, do not allow to establish causal relationships; But the effect size makes all this very promising. But, indeed, research is needed. “We are still in the early stages of this research”, The researchers explained. There are very basic things that are there to be clear: for example, they did not study the influence of specific factors such as pre -existing diseases, smoking or the same use of these green spaces. A big problem … that affects us especially. And I say it affects Spain because Bad care that urban trees are given here is An endemic problem. The causes are diverse, yes; But they can be summarized in three: few media, mismanagement and isolated political decisions of any current technical knowledge. Swiss study is just the last drop of a glass to be overflowing. Because we have known for a long time that trees help reduce atmospheric pollutants and mitigate the Urban heat island effect; But we don’t take it seriously. Nor do we go to take it. Image | Vladimir Kudinov In Xataka | A centenary ficus has just died in Seville after two years of agony. It is the best example of how Spain is killing its urban trees

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.