"An experiment...", The Telegraph reveals the cause of the massive 'Black Out' in Spain

Spanish authorities appear to have carried out an experiment to test the 'limits' of reliance on renewable energy before the massive power outage that rocked the Iberian Peninsula last month, a report in The Telegraph suggests.

While many are waiting for answers about the cause of the power outage that affected millions of people in Spain and Portugal, some are questioning Spain's heavy reliance on renewable energy sources, seeing this as a problem for its plan to phase out nuclear reactors by 2027.

Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has rejected the criticism, calling for patience while the government investigates the cause of the historic power outage. Authorities linked the outage to a sharp and unprecedented drop in energy production.

However, it has now been hypothesized that the Spanish government may have been conducting an experiment aimed at testing the limits of its dependence on renewable energy, while preparing for the phase-out of nuclear power.

At the time of the outage, Spain's power grid operator, Red Eléctrica de España, said the collapse was caused by two major power outages.

The head of the Spanish Photovoltaic Energy Association, José Donoso, had made a similar suggestion earlier this month, telling the media outlet 20Minutos: “It’s a matter of logic; the fact that the entire system goes down because of a photovoltaic plant doesn’t make sense.” He added: “We suffered the consequences of a grid outage, but we didn’t cause it.”

In April, the power outage that hit Spain and Portugal was described as one of the largest power outages in Europe, occurring on the afternoon of April 28 and continuing into the night, affecting tens of millions of people.

The outage caused office closures and traffic snarls in Madrid and Lisbon. Rail services in both countries were halted, disrupting businesses, hospitals, transportation systems, mobile networks and other critical infrastructure.

Emergency services and railway workers in Spain were forced to help evacuate around 35,000 people from more than 100 trains that stopped on the tracks when the power went out.

A month after the massive power outage, Spain generated about 57% of its electricity in 2024 from sources such as wind, hydroelectric and solar power, according to Red Eléctrica. About 20% of the energy came from nuclear power plants.