Investigation: Was a renewable energy trial potentially responsible for the Iberian Peninsula power outage?
Unconfirmed speculation circulating online alleges that Spanish authorities may have experimented with the electricity grid before the widespread blackout on April 28, 2025. However, fact-checkers at Euroverify have determined that these claims lack evidence.
In a controversial article published in The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the World Economy Editor, stated that unnamed sources in Brussels claimed Spanish authorities were investigating the boundaries of their reliance on renewable energy sources in preparation for the phase-out of nuclear reactors. Nevertheless, Evans-Pritchard failed to disclose further details about his sources and provided no proof to back up the allegations.
The claims were swiftly picked up by major Spanish and international media outlets such as El Periódico, El Mundo, Antena 3, The Daily Mail, and CNN. Social media users also amplified the allegations. However, it was later revealed that the article in question was an opinion-editorial, and Evans-Pritchard is a regular Telegraph columnist.
In an attempt to corroborate or refute the claims, Euroverify reached out to The Telegraph for clarification on the number of sources consulted and their relation to ongoing investigations into the incident. At the time of publication, Euroverify had not received a response from the newspaper. Euroverify also contacted the European Commission, but the executive remained silent until they had seen the investigation's final conclusions.
As part of EU law, Spain was required to submit a technical report outlining the causes of the blackout within three months after the incident. The Commission has also established an expert panel to conduct an independent probe.
Meanwhile, the Spanish government categorically denied the allegations, accusing the British newspaper of spreading misinformation. Spain's deputy prime minister, María Jesús Montero, asserted that there were corporate interests behind the article, describing The Telegraph as a publication known for disseminating fake news and attempting to manipulate public opinion. A spokesperson for Red Electrica, the state-controlled company responsible for managing the Spanish grid, echoed these sentiments, calling the allegations "fake news."
Experts in electrical engineering have expressed doubts about the feasibility of a government-led "experiment" on the grid leading up to the blackout. Manuel Alcázar-Ortega, deputy director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, noted that any hypothesis could be potentially considered, but the notion of such an experiment appeared highly improbable due to the availability of simulators for testing grid capacity and evaluating renewable energy integration.
Professor Dirk Van Hertem, a researcher at the EnergyVille research center in Belgium, confirmed that computer simulations were used to analyze grids. Van Hertem added that there was no evidence that any real-life tests were conducted in Spain at the time in question, as the moments with the highest renewable penetration had already passed.
Investigations into the blackout have so far failed to provide clear answers, despite initial analyses pointing to a strong oscillation in the electrical network half an hour before the outage and consecutive failures in substations in southwest Spain. Some experts have suggested that while renewable energy resources may have contributed to system instability, it is more likely that the issue lies in the management of these resources rather than the renewables themselves.
With renewables accounting for a record 56.8% of Spain's electricity generation in 2024, the Spanish prime minister claimed that there was no empirical evidence that the incident was precipitated by an excess in renewables. Accusations of deliberate sabotage or manipulation of the grid have been dismissed, while solar flares and sanctions have been debunked as other theories about the blackout's cause.
In light of the ongoing investigations, there has been speculation about the Spanish government's preparations for the phase-out of nuclear reactors within the renewable energy industry. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a World Economy Editor at The Telegraph, suggested that Spanish authorities were investigating their reliance on renewable energy sources, but failed to provide concrete evidence to support the claims. Despite the allegations, experts in electrical engineering find it highly improbable that a government-led experiment on the grid could have led to the blackout, given the availability of simulators for testing grid capacity and evaluating renewable energy integration.
