https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/dont-blame-renewables-spains-power-outage-bousso-2025-04-30/
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – While it may be tempting to blame the unprecedented power outage that hit the Iberian peninsula this week on the rapid growth of wind and solar power in Spain, reliance on renewables is not to blame. Rather, the issue appears to be the management of renewables in the modern grid.The massive blackout on Monday – the biggest in Europe’s history – should be a stark warning to governments: investments in power storage and grid upgrades must go hand in hand with the expansion of renewables generation.…
Inverter-based wind and solar power, which generated just under 70% of Spain’s total electricity at the critical moment on Monday, does not involve physical rotation and therefore inertia could not compensate for the sudden loss of power.An obvious short-term solution to avoid a repeat of the blackout would be to maintain a higher baseload of rotating power generation.Over the long term, however, power systems will need to invest heavily in battery capacity to store electricity as well as technologies for synchronising the grid that are critical to maintaining the 50 Hz frequency.
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Two days ago, Spain lost 55% of its power, most from solar
Perception: Everyone wants to blame anything but renewables
Reality: With renewables, the grid gets vulnerable (missing inertia, mainly from fossil fuels) so we need more costly renewable management
So Reuters deceptively tells us, “don’t blame renewables,” blame “management of renewables”
