Did solar energy trigger the Iberian power outage?

As quickly as the lights headed out in Spain and Portugal, the hypothesizing concerning the source of the power outage started. Was it a cyberattack? Atmospheric disturbance? Aliens?

Though the Spanish federal government is exploring the opportunity of a cyberattack on the Spanish electrical power grid, the head of the Spanish electrical power transmission system driver Red Electrica (REE), Eduardo Prieto, has ruled this out already.

Extreme regularity change

According to Prieto, 2 obviously different occurrences that took place within 1.5 secs of each various other in southwestern Spain tossed the grid regularity off equilibrium. He claimed that this created the interruption of nuclear power plant with a capability of 15 gigawatts (GW)– nearly fifty percent of the energetic nuclear power plant capability at the time.

Very huge and abrupt variances can trigger a plunging failing, where severe regularity variations set off components and devices in various other nuclear power plant (and huge customers), which after that immediately take these plants off the grid.

Prieto explained it as fairly feasible that this cause and effect might have been caused by solar energy plants.

Does that imply doubters of renewable resources are right when they state that a surplus of solar energy caused the power outage?

Claim: “Renewables, in this case solar, have just caused the first major #power outage in Spain, specifically due to an oversupply of solar,” a claimed physicist with a German account, posted on X, previously Twitter, gathering nearly 100,000 sights (since 30.04.2025, 16:40).

The individual refered to Fritz Vahrenholt, a German chemistry teacher and supervisor, that is important of power change initiatives and had actually clarified in an additional post on X, which drew in greater than 400,000 sights, that prior to the grid failing in Spain, the manufacturing of renewable resources, specifically solar, had actually boosted greater than need.

DW reality check: Unproven

The source of the power interruption has not been effectively made clear. It is right that at the time of the power outage, solar power supplied about 60% (19.3 GW) of the power offered in the Spanish grid. Moreover, it shows up that solar energy plants controlled electrical power manufacturing in the southwest of Spain.

Did all PV systems unexpectedly turn off?

For power change doubter Fritz Vahrenholt, there is no question that the excess of solar (PV) power in the Spanish grid was the “primary cause,” as he informed DW by e-mail. He claimed that Spain had actually been compelled to export electrical power to France therefore.

The “secondary cause” was the loss of this transmission line and therefore “all” the PV systems had after that “abruptly” detached from the grid, he claimed.

However, PV systems are not intended to close down suddenly. due to the fact that standard laws for electrical power manufacturers have actually been in pressure in the EU given that 2016.

These laws state that PV systems need to progressively minimize their feed-in if the grid regularity surpasses the restriction worth of 50.2 hertz (Hz) because of a power excess.

“In Spain, corresponding grid connection guidelines were introduced at the end of the 2000s to ensure that PV systems do not simply disconnect from the grid in the event of a sudden grid fault,” claimed Sönke Rogalla, a scientist at the German Fraunhofer Institute ISE, Europe’s biggest solar study institute. He clarified that these homes were validated before procedure as component of qualification treatments.

Furthermore, data avaiable so far  additionally oppose Vahrenholt’s thesis. Even if all solar plants had actually been removed the grid at the very same time, there would certainly not have actually been a deficiency of 15 GW, however a minimum of of 20.4 GW as the PV result at the time of the power outage went to the very least 17 GW.

However, additionally nuclear reactor, which provided 3.4 GW, were removed the grid as a preventive action.

Is high PV power a trouble for electrical power grids?

It is recorded that Spain’s power grid links to France and Portugal were topped throughout the power outage. However, it is still uncertain whether this was the source of the power outage in Spain or among the cause and effect.

What is particular is that Spain exported an internet total amount of 3 GW soon prior to the grid interference. As an outcome of the disruption to the high-voltage line, this surplus was unexpectedly offered inSpain Such an event would certainly certainly be a significant worry for any type of electrical power grid.

Vahrenholt thinks that the reduced variety of coal and nuclear reactor in Spain was an extra trouble, as the generators of such nuclear power plant can offer to smooth regularities.

This supporting impact, called immediate book, was possibly doing not have in Spain, composed Enrique Garralaga, a taking care of supervisor at a subsidiary of the German PV element supplier SMA, in a ConnectedIn post.

“Technical solutions are available”

Fraunhofer scientist Rogalla verified that this can have added to the power outage however he had a various viewpoint: “The blackout in Spain was not a PV failure, but probably a system failure,” he claimed, including that “in this respect, I see it as an urgent reminder that the restructuring of the energy system poses major challenges.”

With the systems mounted today, it is not feasible to run a power grid with solar and wind power alone, he claimed. He additionally denied the case that a high percentage of renewable resources was an unresolvable trouble. “We are constantly learning. The technical solutions are now available, now we have to set about implementing them.”

The outbound German federal government detailed a feasible means ahead in a roadmap. The governing authority, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, or ACER, has currently submitted a proposition for the execution of brand-new options at EU degree.

Conclusion: The concept that ‘a surplus of solar (power)’ was the factor for the power outage can not be validated. Although a high percentage of eco-friendly electrical power in the grid is just one of the significant difficulties of the power change, it is not an unresolvable trouble.

This short article was initially released in German.