Deric Tilson at The Ecomodernist:
On April 28, 2025, at 12:33:24 CET, a blackout encompassed Spain, Portugal, and parts of southwest France, leaving over 50 million people without power. The loss of electricity cost Spain an estimated $1.82 billion in economic output and damages. When the Iberian grid collapsed, people who were going about their day moments before were now stuck in elevators, food in freezers and refrigerators began to thaw or spoil, and non-urgent medical needs were delayed as hospitals dealt with scarce backup power supplies.
Quickly, pundits, experts, and posters on social media descended on the details of the blackout, grabbing what information they could, and spewing hot takes: “Solar is to blame.” “Why did the nuclear power plants go offline?” “Green energies and renewables did this.” “Aha, nuclear plants were in planned outage.” Schadenfreude abounds when systems begin to break, especially when aspects of those systems are politically charged.
Fifteen hours later, the transmission grids of Spain and Portugal were restored to full operation. Electrons once again flowed to people’s homes, charging their phones, illuminating their rooms, cooling their food, and providing them with modern comforts. The question of how the blackout happened remained.
More here.
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