We must heed the warning of Spain’s Net Zero blackouts

At 12.30pm on Monday 28 April, Spain and Portugal were plunged into blackouts. Modern life ground to a halt, thanks to one of the worst power outages in European history. Electricity was not fully restored across Spain until 10 hours later, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with outages lasting up to 18 hours in some regions. Even when the grid came back online, it was still difficult to make phone calls or access the internet in parts of central Spain.

Nearly two months later, the Spanish government has finally produced its explanation for the outages. A report released last week pins much of the blame on the grid operator and on private energy providers, both of which it accuses of miscalculating how much power was needed that day. However, it refuses to confront the actual underlying cause – namely, Spain’s dangerous reliance on wind and solar power. Indeed, at the time of the blackout, 70 per cent of Spain’s electricity came from renewables, which are notoriously unreliable. This was not a coincidence.

As part of its Net Zero plans, the Spanish government has pledged to produce 81 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2030. In recent years, wind and solar have been expanded, gas power plants have been shut down and nuclear is slated to be phased out – all without regard to the consequences. Energy experts have long warned that a complete overhaul of the electricity grid would be necessary to make this feasible, but to no avail. In the rush to reach the target, dissenting voices have been ignored.

Indeed, there has been no shortage of alarm bells. In 2021, the European Resource Adequacy Assessment, which monitors power systems across the continent, urged Spain to introduce incentives to keep traditional power plants open, such as gas power stations. The closure of these plants, it argued, would jeopardise the security of Spain’s electricity supply.

Another warning came from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity. A report published in February claimed that the risk of blackouts would increase significantly between 2026 and 2028 – the period coinciding with the planned closure of the Almaraz nuclear power plant in western Spain.

Red Eléctrica de España, the national grid operator, dismissed these concerns, however. Just 20 days before Spain fell dark, it posted on social media that ‘There is no risk of a blackout’. (It is worth noting that Red Eléctrica’s majority shareholder is the Spanish government.)

While the Spanish government insists April’s blackout was due to a one-off error, in truth, its entire energy strategy is to blame. Depressingly, there is nothing to suggest that Spain plans to learn any lessons. There has been no rethinking of either the rush towards renewables or the abandonment of fossil fuels and nuclear. Portugal, which clearly has not bought the Spanish government’s excuses, disconnected from Spain’s grid for over a week after the blackout. France remains on high alert for the next outage, fearing it could bring down swathes of its own grid.

There is another inconvenient fact the Spanish government has sought to conceal. It turns out that the gradual restoration of electricity on 29 April was only possible with the help of nuclear energy from neighbouring France. Yet Spain remains committed to the closure of all its nuclear power plants by 2035. This is despite the fact that nuclear is reliable and even produces carbon-free electricity.

There have been speculative reports in the Telegraph that Spain may have been ‘conducting an experiment’ before the system went down back in April. It is possible that the government was testing the extent to which renewables could be relied upon when Spain’s nuclear plants go offline. Red Eléctrica has declined to comment. If this does prove to be the case, it would shatter the public’s already waning trust in the current government – especially in its foolhardy green policies.

The blackouts in April ought to have been a major wake-up call. Here we saw the delusions of the green agenda colliding with reality. The dangers of relying on renewables were exposed for all to see. Yet it seems Spain is determined to remain on the same course that brought it to the brink of disaster. We cannot say we have not been warned.

Itxu Díaz is a Spanish journalist, political satirist and author.