Passengers wait next to RENFE (National Network of Spanish Railways) ticket machines as they wait to board their trains at Santa Justa railway station in Seville on April 29, 2025, the day after a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France.
Cristina Quicler / AFP
There has been a big uptick in power produced by gas since renewables played a large role in a half-day blackout.
Spanish officials have spent the months since one of the worst power outages in European history publicly blaming everything but their overreliance on renewables. But their actions behind the scenes show they know this to have been the true cause.
Most tellingly, the nation’s gas consumption for electricity generation soared by an impressive 41% in the first half of the year. Bloombergreports that this heavier-than-normal reliance on fossil fuel was intended to “stabilise the country’s power network in the wake of a nationwide blackout in April.”
Spanish energy boss Arturo Gonzalo is also quoted in the paper saying “gas played a decisive role in restoring normality in Spain after the April 28th blackout, ensuring supply to all consumers,” adding that combined-cycle plants went from supplying about 5% of the electricity produced in Spain to 49% “during hours that were critical for the country.”
Spain and Portugal were sourcing around 80% of their electricity from solar and wind when the Iberian blackouts took place. Leaked recordings revealed the cuts were preceded by a warning to operators that the problem stemmed from solar energy “coming in and out” of the system, although an official Spanish government report later attempted to shift the attention elsewhere.
‘Sceptical Environmentalist’ Bjorn Lomborg bashed the Spanish government for pushing ahead with renewable energy despite knowing it was unreliable, noting in The Wall Street Journal that while “climate activists promised that solar and wind power were the future of cheap, dependable electricity,” the “massive half-day blackout shows otherwise.”
The nature of solar and wind generation makes grids that rely on them more prone to collapse—an issue that’s particularly expensive to ameliorate.
Norwegian energy analyst Torbjørn Kjus also said the following switch to fossil fuel should mean there is “no point in debating this anymore.” But until the official acceptance of the role of net zero becomes not just tacit but vocal, there is more work to be done.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
