At 12:33 PM on Monday, a historic blackout plunged the Iberian Peninsula into darkness. In an instant, 60% of the energy meeting demand—around 15 gigawatts—vanished from the electricity grid, causing a chain reaction that affected not only Spain and Portugal but also parts of France, Belgium, and Germany. An event that, until now, was considered virtually unthinkable.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, in his first press appearance, said: “All potential causes are being analyzed, without discarding any possibility.” Red Eléctrica, the system operator, also initially avoided assigning blame. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her support for Spain and Portugal and guaranteed Brussels’ cooperation to “monitor the situation.”
Although early speculation suggested a possible cyberattack—even the Spanish intelligence agency CNI did not rule out this possibility—and some accused the Kremlin, the most plausible explanation soon emerged: an overload caused by a surge in renewable energy production, especially solar power, which at the time made up 65% of total generation.
Data shows that between 12:30 and 12:35 PM, solar production dropped by 10.2 GW, nuclear by 3.87 GW, and wind by 1.357 GW. This sudden loss of generation created an unsustainable imbalance in the grid. Energy expert Jorge Sanz Oliva explained that renewables—because they are variable and not synchronized with the grid—do not provide the same stability as nuclear, hydro, or combined-cycle gas plants. When solar generation exceeded the grid’s capacity, there was no way to store the excess or cushion the impact, forcing the emergency disconnection of several plants to prevent greater damage.
The energy transition promoted by Brussels strongly favors renewables like solar and wind, but this blackout revealed a serious vulnerability: the inability to store surplus energy and the instability of a system that relies heavily on digital infrastructure.
A fragile infrastructure under EU pressure
The incident has reignited debate about the energy plans pushed by the European Union. As warned by a recent PwC report, the premature shutdown of firm generation plants — nuclear, thermal, and combined cycle — without the parallel development of massive storage solutions “entails the risk of blackouts.”
The reality is that the energy model Brussels aims to impose is not capable of ensuring a secure power supply. If electricity fails, the domino effect is immediate: transport, communications, banking, healthcare… all aspects of modern life depend on a vulnerable and increasingly exposed network.
The company that manages the infrastructure, Redeia (formerly Red Eléctrica), is chaired by Beatriz Corredor, a former socialist minister, and its management has historically been linked to successive governments. Despite assurances given in early April that “there was no risk of blackout,” that was proven false.
The politicization of such a critical infrastructure raises serious doubts about the suitability of the current model. If a country’s basic supply can collapse in a matter of seconds, the stability of the entire nation is called into question.
Spain and Portugal have managed to restore nearly 100% of their electric supply, but the damage is already done: eight autonomous communities declared a level 3 emergency, parliamentary activity was suspended, and the National Security Council met several times to assess the risks.
Prime Minister Sánchez promised that citizens would eventually know the full truth. However, the urgency of rethinking the energy future is now unavoidable. Expanding renewables without proper backup systems is no longer just risky—it could be disastrous.
