A Piece of Advice on the Power Grid in Spain
Regarding Gabriel Calzada and Manuel Fernández Ordóñez's op-ed 'How the Lights Went Out in Spain' (May 1): My wife and I were in Mijas, a tourist town in the hills of the Costa del Sol, at the time of the outage. The disruption was total. No power, cell service, internet or running water. Tourists in Europe are highly dependent on tap-to-pay, so they carry little cash. Without cell service and the internet, electronic payment systems didn't work. Banks closed at once making it impossible to get the cash needed to pay taxi drivers to get down the mountain. And forget about calling an Uber. The panic was palpable.
When I heard that the cause was oscillations, I told my wife the problem was likely the excessive use of solar. As an electrical engineer I know the electric grid requires a perfect balance between supply and demand, which is difficult to maintain with a high percentage of power coming from solar and wind. The passage of clouds can actually add to the instability. As the authors explain, without the shock absorbers of rotating synchronous generators, stability becomes very difficult to maintain. The result, as was learned on vacation, can be catastrophic.
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Forbes
37 minutes ago
- Forbes
Hallmark Leading Ladies Alison Sweeney And Ashley Williams Team Up To Explore Barcelona In Two-Part Movie
'Nobody was really sure exactly how it was going to work. You know, it's really rare to have two women as the true leads of a Hallmark movie. That doesn't happen a lot.' Alison Sweeney is talking about when she and Ashley Williams pitched their idea for a pair of Spain-set films to the network. Sweeney and Williams have each starred as the leading lady in several Hallmark movies, but they hadn't worked together in one. And, even more rare is the concept of having two leading ladies sharing the main storyline. This is just what happens in not one but two films featuring the actresses. In To Barcelona, With Love, Sweeney plays Erica, an American expat living in Barcelona who translates novels into Spanish. Anna (Williams) is the American author of the book Barcelona, Mi Amor that became a big hit after Erica's translation. When Anna comes to Barcelona for a book signing event, her arrival not only catches the attention of local bookstore owner Nico but also threatens to bring to light Erica's secret – that she took liberties with her translation to improve the story. As the two women navigate their relationship, they end up ultimately helping each find true happiness. In the follow up, To Barcelona, Forever, set five months later, Erica and Anna are happily navigating new chapters in their lives. Now friends, they find themselves traveling outside the city of Barcelona to a charming village where a misunderstanding leads to unexpected romance for one of them. Also a first for Hallmark, both films were shot entirely on location in Barcelona, Spain, and surrounding areas. Along with Sweeney and Williams, who also serve as producers on the project, Alejandro Tous and Miguel Brocca co-star in the films. Sweeney clarifies the concept of the movies a bit, saying, 'From the very beginning we always saw this as a story about the friendship between these two women and their bond. But of course, the romance that they each experience on their own is an important part too.' She says that for both she and Williams, 'So often when we do these movies, we're playing opposite a handsome, wonderful, charismatic man, which is fun, and its own journey,' but she expresses that both are happy about, 'getting to be sitting across from another leading lady.' 'It's just a different experience,' she explains. 'It feels very honest getting into the rawness and the realness of what happens between two women who are doing all kinds of things on their way to becoming friends. So it's a really different energy and a different dynamic than what people might call a 'standard' Hallmark movie.' In an interesting twist, Sweeney, commenting on working with Williams said that her favorite part of the collaboration was, 'not always agreeing about everything.' 'When you have someone just as invested as you in something, but they see something a different way, I'm so happy to have that conversation with an equally strong point of view that is not the same as mine, because I really thought mine was the only way, and now I'm hearing her point of view, and that's so much better. The movie is better because of everything we didn't agree about; those things that we really worked on to find the best solution.' Williams agrees, adding, 'Yeah, getting to go to Ali and say. 'I'm not sure about this,' and having her say, 'yeah, let's fix it,' was so great. It was just wonderfully validating to have a partner like that.' However, Sweeney says that things weren't 'perfect' all the time. 'The hardest part about working with Ashley is that I wanted to laugh all the time. She's just so funny, sometimes it was hard for me to be professional.' While they did let the laughter flow, Williams says that the two women were able to bring the drama as needed. 'There were a lot of moments in this when we really had to show conflict between our characters, and neither of us held back. And it was kind of fun because there are obstacles in this friendship, and it gets emotional and heated, and we really went for it in those scenes.' Speaking about the second film, Sweeney says that the intent was 'not to make a sequel or like the same movie again.' 'I think that's a really important as storytellers ourselves, but also just as fans of TV. I've watched lots of movies, and I watched the sequels, and I don't want to see the same movie again. I want to see a different movie. I want to see what happens next with these characters. 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'It's just me and Ali with our little headphones on our computers, seeing if we can make a podcast. I really like that about it, that It's sort of made with scotch tape and paper clips.' Even given the low-tech production of it, Williams says that the podcast does give a great deal of insight into, 'the making of the movies, and what we were thinking as we were doing everything.' All of this seems to be a theme permeating not only their work together but highlighted in their films as well — that it's all about recognizing the moments that matter. 'It's the little stuff, nuances and details that happen in-between those, like, tentpole things that happen. That's what life is,' says Sweeney. 'It's all those little moments that happen unexpectedly, or maybe missed opportunities, and things like that. That's really what's fun about telling stories — when you do something and people can they see themselves in a particular moment. That's a win for us when we feel like we've created a situation that you would find yourself in and you understand it. And I think that's what we've done in these stories. 'To Barcelona, With Love' premieres Saturday, June 7th at 8pm. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel, and 'To Barcelona, Forever' debuts Saturday, June 14th at 8pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel. The podcast, Mi Amor, with Ali Sweeney + Ashley Williams, can be found here.
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Washington Post
Spanish Muslims retrace ancient Hajj travel route on horseback from Andalusia to Saudi Arabia
CAIRO — Three Spanish pilgrims performing the Hajj in Saudi Arabia rode on horseback to Mecca, traveling thousands of kilometers in snow and rain and along a path they said had not been trekked for more than 500 years. Abdelkader Harkassi Aidi, Tarek Rodriguez and Abdallah Rafael Hernandez Mancha set out from southern Spain in October, riding through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria and Jordan to arrive in Saudi Arabia in May. It was an emotional moment for the trio when they reached Mecca. No pilgrim had traveled this way since 1491, they said. Harkassi said the group's path from Spain took them across about 8,000 kilometers (nearly 5,000 miles) before they reached the Kaaba, the black cube structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. 'We had crossed so many kilometers to be there and Allah had replied to our wish,' he told The Associated Press on Thursday from Arafat, southeast of Mecca. 'We were in front of the Kaaba and had the opportunity to touch it. So, that 8,000 kilometers became nothing.' During their monthslong journey they came across scenic stretches of nature and historical landmarks in Syria, including the Aleppo Citadel and the Umayyad Mosque. They also found an old railway track built during the time of the Ottoman Empire that connected Istanbul to Saudi Arabia. They followed it for days to help guide them to the desert kingdom. But there were challenges, too. They lost their horses in Bosnia, only to find them later in a landmine zone. Nobody could fetch the horses because of the explosives, but the animals eventually made it out of the area unharmed, Harkassi said. The human element of the trip was the most valuable for the team, he added. 'When we didn't have anything, people helped us with our horses, with our food, they gave us money. When our assistance car got broken, they fixed it for us,' Harkassi said. 'People have been incredible. I think it's proof that Muslims are united, that the one ummah (nation) that every Muslim longs for is a reality.'
Associated Press
3 hours ago
- Associated Press
Spanish Muslims retrace ancient Hajj travel route on horseback from Andalusia to Saudi Arabia
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] CAIRO (AP) — Three Spanish pilgrims performing the Hajj in Saudi Arabia rode on horseback to Mecca, traveling thousands of kilometers in snow and rain and along a path they said had not been trekked for more than 500 years. Abdelkader Harkassi Aidi, Tarek Rodriguez and Abdallah Rafael Hernandez Mancha set out from southern Spain in October, riding through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria and Jordan to arrive in Saudi Arabia in May. It was an emotional moment for the trio when they reached Mecca. No pilgrim had traveled this way since 1491, they said. Harkassi said the group's path from Spain took them across about 8,000 kilometers (nearly 5,000 miles) before they reached the Kaaba, the black cube structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. 'We had crossed so many kilometers to be there and Allah had replied to our wish,' he told The Associated Press on Thursday from Arafat, southeast of Mecca. 'We were in front of the Kaaba and had the opportunity to touch it. So, that 8,000 kilometers became nothing.' During their monthslong journey they came across scenic stretches of nature and historical landmarks in Syria, including the Aleppo Citadel and the Umayyad Mosque. They also found an old railway track built during the time of the Ottoman Empire that connected Istanbul to Saudi Arabia. They followed it for days to help guide them to the desert kingdom. But there were challenges, too. They lost their horses in Bosnia, only to find them later in a landmine zone. Nobody could fetch the horses because of the explosives, but the animals eventually made it out of the area unharmed, Harkassi said. The human element of the trip was the most valuable for the team, he added. 'When we didn't have anything, people helped us with our horses, with our food, they gave us money. When our assistance car got broken, they fixed it for us,' Harkassi said. 'People have been incredible. I think it's proof that Muslims are united, that the one ummah (nation) that every Muslim longs for is a reality.'
