EP192: The Dark Side of Decarbonization: Unpacking the Iberian Blackout

Summary:

IN this episode, we discuss the April 28, 2025 blackout across Spain and Portugal, analyzing its causes, impacts, and lessons learned for the global energy transition. We highlight how a rapid loss of solar generation in a grid with low inertia and limited storage and interconnections led to the massive outage, impacting millions of people and causing significant economic losses. We emphasize the technical challenges posed by the low energy and power density of renewables and argue for investments in grid modernization, storage, dispatchable backups, and enhanced interconnections to ensure grid resilience and balance renewable integration with reliability.

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