What the blackout in Spain, Portugal says about renewables

DW.com Holly Young 05/20/2025May 20, 2025

The recent power outage in Spain and Portugal has raised questions about the stability of solar and wind power. It also reignited the debate around the phasing out of nuclear energy.

People walk down the street between flashlights and light reflections during the power outage that affects Spain on April 28, 2025

At 12:33 p.m. on April 28, swathes of Spain and parts of Portugal were plunged into darkness: trains were stranded, phone and internet coverage faltered, and ATMs stopped working.

The electricity blackout across the Iberian Peninsula is believed to be one of the worst in Europe’s history.

While most power was restored by the next morning, weeks later the investigation into the blackout is ongoing.

Last week, Spain’s energy minister Sara Aagesen said so far it was clear an abrupt loss of power at a substation in Granada, followed by failures in Badajoz and Seville, led to a loss of 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, but that the precise cause was unknown.

In the wait for answers, some have pointed the finger at Spain’s high reliance on renewables and reignited debates over plans to phase out nuclear power by 2035.

Are renewables to blame for the blackout?

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Lessons from Texas Freeze: 5 Ways to Strengthen US Energy Resilience

WRI.org

Even as people are suffering through the harshest winter storm Texas has seen in decades, the reasons for the state’s devastating power grid failure have become a political battleground. While vulnerable people freeze in their homes, pundits snipe about whether wind turbines are to blame. Tiếp tục đọc “Lessons from Texas Freeze: 5 Ways to Strengthen US Energy Resilience”

The History of Electrification

Edison Tech Center

The power grid started with long distance transmission and soon led to interconnected systems, these are some of the landmark early power generation sites.
Background
List of important early power sites
Sites by geography (interactive maps)

The power grid as we know it began with isolated power generation systems across the world starting in the 1870s. The growth and unification of the systems into an interconnected AC power ‘grid’ helped raise the quality of life of people from all classes.

Direct Current Beginnings:

DC power systems dominated in the 1870’s and 1880s. “Small” systems were sold to factories around the world, both in urban areas, and remote undeveloped areas for industrial/mining use. Thomas Edison, Charles Brush, and Werner von Siemenslead the industry in DC systems. DC systems powered factories and small downtown areas but did not reach 95% of residents. Electric lighting was a luxury found only in hotels and other businesses as well as in the mansions of people like George Westinghouse and J.P. Morgan. Tiếp tục đọc “The History of Electrification”

Milestones in the development the power system in Vietnam

EVN

  • Construction of the first 35 kV power line in the North

In January 1958, the first 35 kV power line (Hanoi – Pho Noi) was built and in the third quarter of the same year was inaugurated and successfully energized. This was a remarkable milestone in the development of the Vietnam power network.

  • Construction of the first large scale thermal power plant in the North

  Tiếp tục đọc “Milestones in the development the power system in Vietnam”

How Southeast Asia is innovating with smart grid technology

IOTI_Nations in the Asian region are using a unique approach to smart grid technology to keep up with dizzying growth.

Brian Buntz | Nov 14, 2017

When asked to come up with a list of innovative industries, you would probably be unlikely to put the utility sector near the top. There is, of course, the quiet innovation of utilities modernizing their grid, experimenting with smart grid technology and moving to clean energy, but most utilities don’t embrace the agile experimentation of startups. The regulated nature of the industry and the conservative nature of many public utilities commissions just don’t reward that kind of behavior. 
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