A massive power outage that affected multiple European countries has reportedly led to an estimated $2.5-$3.5 billion in economic losses, and investigators believe that the blackout may have been caused by a massive solar power failure, leading to widespread criticism of Spain’s heavy reliance on renewable energy sources.
For context, the blackout, which plunged both Spain and Portugal into darkness, occurred at around 12:30 P.M. on April 28, 2025, when Spain’s electricity demand dropped by 60% within just five seconds, as reported by the primary state-backed power grid operator. Following the blackout, an investigation pointed to issues with solar plants in southwestern Spain as a probable cause.
In response to the blackout, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain blamed energy companies, telling the press that he would “demand all relevant responsibilities from all private operators.” Furthermore, the PM was reportedly specifically upset with Red Electrica, the El País-based grid operator, saying that they demonstrated “excessive opacity…and not giving a clear explanation of what happened.”
Moreover, Sánchez made a public statement in which he said that the Spanish government “is going to get to the bottom of this matter and reforms will be made and necessary measures will be taken so that this does not happen again.” The PM then added, “We must not rush to [conclusions] and [commit] errors through haste … We will find out what happened in those five seconds [of the power failure].”
In response to the PM’s comments, Spanish reporter Jordi Juan was critical of Sánchez and insinuated that the government needed to take greater responsibility for the incident, telling the press, “What seems clear is that the government does not want to take the blame for the disaster and by raising the responsibility of the operating companies, it opens the door to not being the only one to receive the blows.”
When the blackout sparked debate about the merits of renewable energy, Spain’s Environment Minister, Sara Aagesen, defended the use of renewable power sources like wind and solar, saying, “The system has worked to perfection with a similar demand situation and with a similar energetic mix [in the past], so pointing the finger at renewables when the system has functioned perfectly in the same context doesn’t seem very appropriate,”
Continuing her defense of solar power, Aagasen said, “We have native resources – the sun, the wind – in our country and we don’t have fossil fuels or uranium,” she said. “We do have sun and wind, and I think a lot of businesses share our commitment to transforming our energy system and making it more and more renewable.”
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According to press accounts, power was restored to Spain and Portugal on April 29. However, authorities have still reportedly offered little explanation for the cause of the blackout, which ended up being one of the biggest outages ever seen in the entirety of Europe. In addition, reports have confirmed that the possibility of a cyber attack has been ruled out.
Watch coverage of Spain’s blackout recovery efforts:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video