After Spain's blackout, its shift to renewables and grid evolution power on (opens in new tab)

Non-storage dams don't have lower lakes to pull from, and the surrounding area might not be able to support it.

plus they also need water when there are droughts, which spain is also prone to.

(Also, I'm discussing an apparent slowdown in Spain's rate of new solar capacity (given the article is about Spain). And global trends are not too relevant to that topic. We all know it's easy to hide issues in global stats – domestic consumers Spain won't care if China increases their solar by 1000000%, for example.)

"Reactive power" sounds fancy, but it just means that motors can create a drag. The power lines are giant capacitors, and capacitors have the lowest effective resistance when they are discharged. So the current is greatest when the voltage crosses the zero mark. Inductive (rotating) loads are the opposite, their effective resistance is greatest when the current starts to rise or fall. So this limits the initial inrush of the current.

But there's more! When you have a transformer and a long line, you can essentially get a boost converter. The voltage from a transformer travels through a low-resistance wire until it reaches the end, and because the line can be modeled as a series of capacitors, you essentially get a "charge pump" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_pump ). From the viewpoint of the generator you have one large capacitor, but from the viewpoint of a consumer in the middle of the line, you have two capacitors in series.

As a result, the voltage in power lines can _spike_ if there's not enough rotating load. This is called Ferranti effect, and in Spain it was the primary reason for the faults.

This is all fixable, but it requires investment and regulation. And Spain (and other countries) have been neglecting that, by incentivizing the cheapest possible generation.

Perhaps you should understand the difference between distal and proximal causes of events? Both are important. Voltage oscillation was the proximal cause. Where did this come from? It's explained in the operators own report:

> During the incident analysis, it was determined that the oscillation was not natural to the system but rather forced. This oscillation is observed with significant amplitude at a Photovoltaic Plant located in province of Badajoz (PV Plant A). At the time of the oscillations, the plant was generating approximately 250 MW. Since the oscillation was forced, it ceased once the plant stabilizes it.

The root cause tree with its multiple roots on page 23 is a good start.