Spain has become one of Europe’s cheapest power markets

Post by pyrale » Sun, May 10, 2026, 9:05 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #68

pyrale wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or heck at least it's a well understood, solved problem. It is not. As a case in my point, Spain had a blackout last year (and I completely believe they are competent professionals - the task is just hard ). > It's just that those interconnections haven't been built yet. They haven't been built because the grid isn't just a technical problem. It's also a socioeconomic problem, and adding new interconnections would…

Hard is relative. Sure, it's hard, but it's a lot simpler problem than something like being able to consume tropical fruit in a temperate country in the middle of winter. The difference of course is that the invisible hand of the market gets that fruit into grocery stores. For various relatively good reasons, power is driven by very visible hands.

Post by crote » Sun, May 10, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

alecco wrote: post #71

jfernandezr wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spain's blackout was exactly 1 year ago, no other blackouts since. And the mix of nuclear stayed almost the same. That was not a stabilization problem per-se, but the companies that had to do the stabilization just didn't although the were being paid for that. Please read the final report.

The government refused to protect nuclear plants when prices went negative for a long time, so of course they were turned off because the companies were losing money. That was the obvious plan all along. And no more blackouts because now they are running nuclear 24/7 to keep things stable. And again, it's not completely Spain's government fault as it obviously came from the EU and their anti-nuclear stance.

Post by oezi » Sun, May 10, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #16

pydry wrote: post #11

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1/5th the price of nuclear. Probably when combined with batteries it is half the price. There are some colder areas in northern europe especially where solar doesnt work as well but they also tend to be better served for hydro (which can also store power).

How much would it cost to build out batteries which cover entire continent's electricy needs for say three weeks (as there can be 2-3 week lulls of no wind and no sun in Europe in the winter)? Cause that sounds like a lot of batteries. Not to mention, if a freak 4 week lull occurs, we'll go back to Middle Ages for a week.

Post by fleroviumna » Sun, May 10, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

maartenscholl wrote: post #79

pyrale wrote: post #27

The author's point is that Spain's electricity is very cheap compared to other European countries thanks to its great electricity mix, etc. The reality is that Spain's electricity is cheap because it is relatively insulated from Europe's core network, because its interconnections with other countries are limited. In financial words, there is a spread with the rest of Europe because the ways to arbitrage that spread a…

This is an interesting point about energy market balancing but it has causality backwards. Spain simply has a better energy mix than Germany, no matter how big the spread between the countries is as a function of interconnectedness.

Post by m463 » Sun, May 10, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

Rygian wrote: post #66

m463 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems many markets have punitive pricing on electricity, california being one egregious example. In most places, if you buy more of something, you are a good customer, it is usually more economical to sell to you and you get a discount. In california people who use more kilowatts, pay more.

Punitive pricing is a great thing. The less energy you spend to deliver value, the better for everyone.