Spain, Portugal Face Major Blackout Amid Energy Crisis

A massive blackout on April 28 left millions in Spain and Portugal without power, halting transportation, disrupting emergency services, and plunging cities into darkness. The outage followed Spain's celebration of running its grid entirely on renewable energy, sparking debate over whether heavy reliance on wind and solar contributed to the grid's instability. While some experts and critics argue that the shift away from traditional baseload sources like nuclear and fossil fuels made the grid vulnerable, the European Commission and Spanish grid operators have downplayed these claims, emphasizing existing safeguards and ongoing investigations. Technical analysis so far points to a series of sudden losses of power generation—including a newly identified third incident—rather than a cyberattack or external interference. Authorities are conducting a detailed investigation, with early indications suggesting cascading failures among power plants led to the collapse. The incident has reignited broader discussions about balancing renewable integration with grid reliability across Europe.