I’m stranded at the airport in Valencia. It’s time to take power disruptions seriously

28 April 2025, 16:05 | Updated: 28 April 2025, 16:51

I'm writing this sitting on the floor outside of a toilet at Valencia airport as I managed to find the most valuable of resources right now - a working plug socket.

Almost five hours ago I got off my flight, came out of the airport, got on a waiting metro train to get into the city, and after five minutes, before the train had left, the lights went out, and we were told we needed to leave because there had been a  blackout.

I went back up to the airport and waited for a while for a bus, but people were saying that traffic lights weren’t working and that it was dangerous driving in the city.

I thought I had better sit it out for a while and see what happens.

My husband would drive to pick me up, but he doesn't have enough petrol in the car to make the journey and petrol stations are closed.

I consider myself relatively lucky right now.

The airports are running generators and the shops can sell food.

Across Valencia and across Spain people are facing all kinds of chaos, much of it very stressful, some of it downright dangerous.

Emergency workers are doing all they can in extremely difficult circumstances to deal with the situation.

We don't know what has caused this power outage.

But we do know that in a climate-changed world, power disruptions become more common.

We know that is just the latest in a global wave of power shortages as our energy demand increases and is not matched by supply, because governments are not investing in the transition that is essential for our survival.

As our climate warms and our energy demand grows, so our need for resilient infrastructure increases.

The most stable and secure system is a diversified system which is powered by flexible wind and solar power.

Blackouts are 99.9% caused by a fault in the transmission system.

But transmission issues can be fixed.

What causes us the greatest vulnerability is when our power supply is dependent on fossil fuels.

Remember when Russia went to war on Ukraine?

Our energy prices shot up and still haven’t come down.

Or look at the years of ‘brown out’ power cuts in South Africa, where they have too long relied on a handful of coal power stations that now creak in decline.

Millions of people can no longer rely on their fridge keeping their food cold, or evening light to do their homework by.

Fossil fuels make countries vulnerable - an isolated problem becoming everyone's problem.

In a diversified clean power system, issues can be compensated for by flexible supply.

The most reliable and consistent form of power is wind and solar energy.

Creating national energy independence means building more renewables, not relying on gas bought from the international markets, subject to the whims of fickle kings and dictators, nor waiting for Nuclear power which won't be built in time to save the planet

In this clean energy future, we will need dedicated government support our power grids, for strong transmission lines, and consistent care for our infrastructure - luckily that means creation of good, well-paying jobs for those people who work in dying industries

To protect their people, governments must redouble their effort to get off gas and onto clean energy.

Renewables are available right now, are the cheapest form of energy and the quickest to build.

Kevin Smith works in progressive comms.

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