Solar power dependency blamed for Spain and Portugal blackout
On April 28th, a blackout wiped out all power in Spain and Portugal. Now, experts have suggested that a worrying overreliance on solar power is to blame for the blunder.
Former regulators and experts have pointed to Spain’s electricity grid’s inability to manage an unusually high supply of solar power. Reportedly, around 55 per cent of Spain’s supply was from solar sources when 15GW of electricity generation disconnected from the grid within just five seconds.
Per the Financial Times, experts said the drop was caused by a lack of “firm power” to restore the grid’s frequency, which must be kept stable for the grid to function. Firm power is a readily available, reliable energy supply from sources like fossil fuels or nuclear that can be increased or decreased.
The Spanish grid operator, Red Eléctrica, previously predicted this sort of occurrence. In their 2024 annual report, it was noted that disconnections caused by “high renewable penetration” without enough “necessary technical capabilities for an adequate response to disturbances” was a risk to the system.
However, Chief Executive Beatriz Corredor denied that renewables “made the system more vulnerable” in an interview with El País on April 30th.
Another theory came from Jorge Sanz, a leading former Spanish energy official and International Energy Agency board member. On Spanish television, he explained that an oversupply of electricity could’ve caused the issue. On the fateful day, there were few plants hooked up to the energy line. Therefore, the usual response to an electricity oversupply, whereby traditional plants moderate their output, was impossible.
This is feasible, as it would have been followed by a disconnection of electricity generation to avoid equipment damage, leading quickly to an outage.
More than $21 trillion must be invested in electricity networks to reach net zero by 2050. Spain’s renewable energy network has helped with this attempt, as it has reduced carbon emissions and nuclear waste production. It has also contributed to lower energy prices than many other European countries, thus helping industry and economic growth. However, the blackout has shown perils to what otherwise appears to be a foolproof reliance on ethical energy.
