solutions

Southeast Spain is the driest place on the peninsula and a DANA has just arrived to “rescue” it. It will give more problems than solutions

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Right now, as I write, “the world cup is falling” on Alicante. And that, in itself, is news. Not the DANA that is crossing the southeast right now, which has a moderate entity and is going to leave unremarkable accumulations; No. It could be, but no. The news is thatit’s raining in the southeast and that, for some time now, has become almost a miracle. A miracle that leaves something revealed, Almería, Murcia and Alicante live in a climatic (and emotional) ‘new normal’ for which we have no physical (nor psychosocial) infrastructure. Let’s look at it in some detail. What is happening? At a meteorological level, the situation is very simple. In the early hours of March 10, a DANA detached itself from general circulation and positioned itself between eastern Andalusia and the Alboran Sea. In the next few hours, the epicenter It will be located over the province of Alicante and it will also cause enormous instability in Murcia, Albacete, all of eastern Andalusia and some parts of Valencia. AEMET predicts accumulations of between 30 and 50 mm in Murcia and Alicante, with some very specific areas reaching 80 in six hours. We may see snow above 900 meters. However, it must be taken into account that the DANA is very small: any change in trajectory, can move precipitation from one region to another. Is it normal? If we are honest, it is quite normal. This is part of a very unstable first week of March with storms, DANAs, haze and many more problems. The underlying problem. The problem is that, for months, we have seen how the very abundant rains of January They left aside this corner of the Peninsula. Thus, the Segura basin is the worst in the entire country followed by that of Júcar and that of the Andalusian Mediterranean basins. That is, not raining is a problem. But let it rain too. Because throughout that area of ​​the country, although it may not seem like it, although it is very subtle, tension continues every time a DANA appears on the weather forecast maps. The worst part goes to the areas where it hit the DANA of 2024 (with up to 30% of children with sleep problems and thousands of people suffering from eco-anxiety and fear), but the consequences are there whether we like it or not. Above all, with failures around the corner. Rethink everything to adapt to what is coming. A few weeks ago, AEMET and the University of Valladolid They published a very interesting work in which they explained that without climate change the DANA of 2024 It would have been much more unlikely. The January rains over Andalusia they do not help to calm to the experts. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

Something is going wrong with AI. The US is turning to energy solutions that it thought were buried to power data centers

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The race to develop and operate increasingly powerful artificial intelligence models comes at a cost that is rarely at the center of the technological narrative. It is not in the chips or the software, but in the huge amount of electricity needed to keep active data centers running around the clock. In the United States, this pressure is already being translated into concrete decisions: polluting power plants that were in retirement are being restarted to cover increasing peaks and tensions on the grid. The paradox is evident, the most ambitious advance in the technology sector depends, for the moment, on energy solutions from another era. The problem is not so much an absolute shortage of electricity as a time lag. The demand for data centers linked to AI it’s growing much faster than the ability to launch new electrical generation, especially renewable, in short terms. Building large energy infrastructures takes years, while these complexes can advance in much shorter time frames. Faced with this temporary shock, network operators and electricity companies are turning to what already exists and can be activated immediately, even if it is more polluting. PJM in context. The clash between electricity demand and supply is perceived with special clarity in the PJM region, the largest electricity market in the United States, which covers 13 states and concentrates a very significant part of the country’s data centers. We can understand it as a large regional electricity exchange that coordinates generation, prices and network stability in real time. There, the growth of data centers linked to AI is putting to the test a system designed for a very different consumption pattern, making PJM the first thermometer of a problem that is beginning to appear in other areas. What is a central peaker. The calls central peakeror peak, are facilities designed to come online only during short periods of peak demand, such as heat waves or winter peaks, when the system needs immediate reinforcement. They are not designed to operate continuously, but to react quickly. According to a report According to the US Government Accountability Office, these facilities generate just 3% of the country’s electricity, but they account for nearly 19% of the installed capacity, a reserve that is now being used much more frequently than expected. South view of the Fisk plant in Chicago The case of the Fisk plant, in the working-class neighborhood of Pilsen, in Chicago, illustrates well how this shift translates on the ground. It is an oil-fueled facility, built decades ago and scheduled to be retired next year, that had been relegated to an almost testimonial role. The arrival of new electrical demands associated with data centers changed that equation. Matt Pistner, senior vice president of generation at NRG Energy, explained to Reuters that the company saw an economic argument to maintain the units and that is why it withdrew the closure notice, a decision that returns activity to a location that many residents believed was in permanent withdrawal. When the price rules. The change is not explained only by technical needs, but also by very clear market signals. In PJM, the prices paid to generators to guarantee supply at times of maximum demand skyrocketed this summer, more than 800% compared to the previous year. An analysis by the aforementioned agency shows that about 60% of oil, gas and coal plants scheduled for retirement in the region postponed or canceled those plans this year, and most of them were units peakerjust the ones that best fit in this new scenario of relative scarcity. The bill for this energy shift is paid above all at a local level. The power plants peaker They tend to be older facilities, with lower chimneys and fewer pollution filters than other plants, which increases the impact on their immediate surroundings when they operate more frequently. Coal is also postponed. The phenomenon is not limited to power plants peaker fueled by oil or gas. On a national scale, several utilities have begun to delay the closure of coal plants that were part of their climate commitments. A DeSmog analysis identified at least 15 retirements postponed from January 2025 alone, facilities that together represent about 1.5% of US energy emissions. Dominion Energy offers a clear example: In 2020 he promised to generate all its electricity with renewables by 2045, but after the company projected that data center demand in Virginia will quadruple by 2038, it is now taking a step back. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | Theodore Kloba In Xataka | A former NASA engineer is clear: data centers in space are a horrible idea

Renfe trusted Talgo and his Avril trains to benefit from the particularities of Spain. Already look for solutions in Germany

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Spain is a particular country regarding the railway field. That is why the pair formed by Talgo and Renfe sounded especially good to compete with the new trains operators. Both companies could benefit and get a strategic advantage in the Galician corridor, while allowing him to fight in the rest of our country. The reality is that nothing has gone as expected. And now Spain looks for trains in Germany. “They have not given the best possible result”. This is how Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, has described the performance of the Talgo S-106 series that Renfe has had in operation. Words pick them up eldiario.eswho point out that Puente will go to a Siemens factory in Germany in search of solutions. The intention, everything indicates, is to reverse the bad results of the Spanish trains with an acquisition of Germans that allow Renfe to compete again on equal terms with Ouigo and Iroyo, who have found the open doors of high speed Low Cost In Madrid-Barcelona. “Corporate”. The bridge trip comes after Renfe will withdraw his Avlo trains from the Madrid-Barcelona corridor. The company’s official response is that AVE trains adapt better to a line in which a “corporate” client profile is better exploited. It is true that Half of the trips That Renfe was carrying out in this corridor made them with the AVE and that the Avlo market share was significantly lower than that of Ouigo and, above all, that of Iroyo. However, the real motive of its abandonment is that some Talgo trains of the S-106 series were being used. A crack. Metaphorical, if we talk about Renfe’s strategy. Material, if we talk about avlo trains. Those known as Avril, projected to compete with these two foreign companies in business volume, presented serious structural problems a few weeks ago. The company He took them out of circulation although at first He denied the problems. Finally, has taken out of circulation The Avlo service but there is no record of a trains relocation. That is, now ouigo and Iro will compete among them two for high speed at low price in that corridor. An oxygen ball for ouigo, which had retired some trains To show more battle in the Andalusian corridor. Recurring problems. As we pointed out, the bridge itself has already suggested that the operation of the aforementioned S-106 of Talgo has not been expected. The first ones that were launched in the Galician corridor and in the line with Asturias. In both cases they accumulated delays and breakdowns. Besides, Nor did they receive the best criticisms for its performance on the roads. Months later, the change of the year also affected the new cars of Talgo. A computer problem left them unused in the early hours of 2025causing important delays the first days. A few weeks ago the most serious fault occurred. Trains cracked (literally). The first solution was circular at a lower speed. The second, probably the most sensible, remove them from the line. Disappointing. The problem with Talgo’s S-106 series is even more disappointing if we take into account that it is a type of train that allows Renfe to Competitive advantage over Ouigo and Iro In the Galician corridor. Talgo is The only company that had built trains that could adapt to the different widths of our country. With compromised production, no one can buy more trains and, therefore, Renfe is in a monopolistic position in the short term. Therefore, perhaps, the disappointment is greater. Finally, trains that had to demonstrate the good Spanish doing in the railway sector have been working for Spanish roads and delays. But, above all, he has closed Renfe the doors of his great tool to compete against his rivals in a corridor where he dominates. Now, Spain will seek solutions in Germany. Photo | Nelso Silva and Siemens In Xataka | Cabinas instead of traveling as sardines: Nox’s key to convert the night train into the alternative to the plane

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