On April 28, 2025, a catastrophic blackout plunged millions of people in Spain and Portugal into chaos. [emphasis, links added]
The power outage is the largest in recent memory in Europe, attacking shortly after noon, immediately disconnecting power supplies and destroying transportation, health care and communications throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
Traffic lights turned dark, nearly 400 flights at Madrid Airport were postponed or cancelled, and hospitals scrambled to keep emergency systems running. Spain's national railway Renfe completely stopped, leaving passengers stranded for hours.
This disaster is not caused by extreme weather or natural disasters, it is caused by dangerous instability to intermittent renewable energy sources.
Ironically, Spain and Portugal advocate for renewable energy more actively than most countries. In 2023, solar and wind power generate about 40% of electricity from Spain and Portugal.
However, this green utopia becomes a nightmare as the unpredictability of renewable energy is strictly exposed.
Authorities suggest that the temperature rise at noon may have emphasized the grid, but today’s simulation forecast for Spain shows. The temperatures throughout the interior remain mild, from the mid-1950s to lows in the 1970s, almost impossible to reliably destroy the extreme conditions of a powerful energy system.
This has raised questions, and the official explanation and highlights how fragile a fragile grid can be in ordinary weather.
Despite the undeniable environmental benefits of renewable energy, its unstable nature requires strong grid infrastructure, a large number of backup power supplies, and a wide range of storage solutions that don’t have enough space.
This situation is further exacerbated by the limited interconnection capacity with neighboring countries, preventing Spain and Portugal from effectively drawing power from elsewhere during the crisis.
How rare is such a power outage? Power disruption of this scale is extremely rare for high-level countries such as Spain and Portugal… However, with the dependence on unstable energy, we may see more.
How many lives may be lost or severely affected by such a power outage?
In hospitals running on backup generators, emergency services slow or stagnate, vulnerable people stay, and no necessary medical equipment; these consequences far outweigh the assumption threats posed by climate change itself.
Irrational Fear is written by climatologist Dr. Matthew Wielicki and has been supported by readers. If you value what you read here, consider subscribing to and supporting the work there.
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