Spain and Portugal Blackout: Why Renewables Are NOT to Blame
On April 28, 2025, a massive power outage swept across Spain and Portugal, plunging millions into darkness, halting public transport, stranding travellers, and sending governments into emergency meetings. The blackout, which lasted several hours, triggered states of emergency across both countries and fuelled a wave of speculation about the cause. (1)(2)(3)
It didn't take long for critics to point fingers at renewable energy. After all, Spain had recently celebrated a landmark moment: just a week before on all its social channels, its grid operator Red Electrica announced that wind, solar, and hydro together had generated over 100% of the nation's electricity demand for the first time. It was an achievement rightly hailed as a milestone for clean energy.
But the reality of the blackout is far more complex — and it is categorically wrong to blame renewables.
What Actually Happened?
According to Spain's grid operator REE, the blackout began with a sudden and dramatic loss of 15 gigawatts of power — equivalent to around 60% of Spain's national demand — in just five seconds. This caused a major interconnection failure between Spain and France. The failure led to a disconnection, "islanding" the Iberian Peninsula's grid and triggering a collapse of Spain's electricity network.
The chaos spread quickly. Hospitals had to switch to backup generators, metro systems in Madrid and Lisbon ground to a halt, airports cancelled flights, and supermarkets emptied as residents rushed to stock up on essentials. Internet traffic plummeted by 90% in Portugal and 80% in Spain. Emergency services struggled to cope, directing traffic manually at jammed intersections and rescuing people stuck in lifts.
Yet, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese officials emphasised, the exact cause of the initial failure remains unknown. Theories include "very large oscillations" in the voltage, potentially caused by conductor sag under high temperatures and strong winds. Crucially, there is no evidence — none — that the high levels of renewables on the grid triggered the event.
The Rush to Blame Renewables
Despite the lack of evidence, far-right commentators and climate sceptics in our view predictably seized on the opportunity to blame renewables. It’s an all-too-familiar narrative: whenever a grid faces disruption, some jump to condemn clean energy, regardless of the facts.
Historical context matters here. Europe has experienced large blackouts long before renewables became a major part of the energy mix. In 2003, a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a blackout across the Italian peninsula. In 2006, an overloaded network in Germany led to widespread cuts across multiple countries. These were caused by failures in traditional energy infrastructure, not by renewables.
Lessons About Grid Resilience — Not Renewables
The real lesson from the Iberian blackout is not that renewables are unreliable — it’s that grids need stronger resilience measures.
Spain, like many other nations, has made impressive progress towards decarbonisation. However, experts have pointed out that it has been slow to invest in large-scale battery storage, which acts as a "shock absorber" for the grid. Australia’s experience is instructive: after a major blackout in South Australia in 2016, it invested the year after heavily in batteries like the Hornsdale Power Reserve. Since then, South Australia's grid — with even higher renewable penetration — has proven remarkably stable. To their credit, Spain has recognised this gap and is beginning to invest in grid-scale batteries. But the necessary projects are still in their early stages.
The Bottom Line
The blackout in Spain and Portugal was not caused by renewables. It was the result of a major system imbalance, possibly linked to physical transmission issues between Spain and France. Blaming wind and solar energy is not only incorrect, it’s dangerously misleading. As renewable penetration increases worldwide, the key is not to retreat from clean energy, but to invest smartly in the infrastructure — storage, resilience, and grid services — that modern grids need. Renewables are the future. If anything, this event shows that the future must be better supported, not feared.
References
Reuters News - Emma Pinedo, Catarina Demony and David Latona “Power begins to return after huge outage hits Spain and Portugal” 29 April 2025 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/large-parts-spain-portugal-hit-by-power-outage-2025-04-28/
ABC Wires “How a power outage caused chaos in Spain and Portugal” 29 April 2025 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-29/spain-portugal-power-outage-how-it-happened/105227080
CNN World - Rob Pincheta “Spain and Portugal declare states of emergency after massive power outage” 29 April 2025 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/28/europe/spain-portugal-power-outages-intl/index.html
Renew Economy - Giles Parkinson “ Spain reached 100 pct renewables a week before blackout. Some big batteries might have kept lights on.” 29 April 2025 https://reneweconomy.com.au/spain-reached-100-pct-renewables-a-week-before-blackout-some-big-batteries-might-have-kept-lights-on/
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