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\n When the power went out in Spain this spring, many theories about the blackout centered around renewable energy. A new expert panel report contradicts the narrative that too much solar and wind was to blame.<\/p>\n
Cristina Quicler\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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Cristina Quicler\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Last spring, tens of millions of people lost electricity<\/a> across Spain, Portugal and part of France. Trains stopped in their tracks, and people were stuck in elevators, as southwestern Europe went without power for \u2014 in some cases \u2014 more than ten hours.<\/p>\n Immediately the finger-point began. Many people blamed solar and wind energy. Spain, one of Europe’s front runners in renewable energy, gets about 46% of its power from solar and wind<\/a>, according to the think tank Ember\u2014 sometimes more than 70%.<\/p>\n In the hours after the outage The Daily Mail published the headline<\/a> “Could renewable energy be to blame for huge Spain blackout?”<\/p>\n And on the day of the outage U.S. energy secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright went on CNBC to talk about the outage and criticized solar and wind<\/a>. “When you hitch your wagon to the weather,” Wright said, “it’s just a risky endeavor.”<\/p>\n The idea that solar and wind are inherently risky and unreliable is a common talking point for critics of renewable energy<\/a>, often repeated by groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry<\/a>. It’s false. When renewable energy is paired with large batteries or other forms of grid management, it’s proven to be reliable<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now a new report from an expert panel of European grid operators<\/a> details what happened. The report finds<\/a> that for the first time in Europe, a voltage surge caused the massive outage. Voltage needs to remain within limits for an electrical grid to work. While many things went wrong, the problem was not a power grid with too much wind or solar, says Chris Rosslowe<\/a>, a senior energy analyst at Ember who was not involved in drafting the report.<\/p>\n “It contradicts the numerous claims that we’ve seen that an overreliance on renewables was the cause,” Rosslowe says. “That is clearly not true.”<\/p>\n But the misinformation about solar and wind energy causing the outage has had an impact. A new survey found that a majority of Spanish respondents<\/a> believe at least one false narrative about the blackout, and the most common was that too much reliance on renewable energy was to blame.<\/p>\n Countries around the world are using renewable energy to move away from polluting fossil fuels<\/a>. That’s why it’s so important to counter false narratives about solar and wind, says Philip Newell, communications co-chair of the Climate Action Against Disinformation<\/a>, a coalition of nonprofits.<\/p>\n “This content makes it seem more normal and feel more normal to hate on renewables,” Newell says. “Even though they’re a solution to climate change.”<\/p>\n \n When the power went out in Spain this spring, media and politicians pointed the finger at too much solar and wind power. While subsequent reports found the cause was high voltage, a new survey finds the renewable misinformation had an impact.<\/p>\n Emilio Parra Doiztua\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n hide caption\n <\/p>\n toggle caption<\/p>\n Emilio Parra Doiztua\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n What did happen before the outage <\/p>\n The new report from the European grid operators’ expert panel<\/a> found multiple triggers shortly before the blackout.<\/p>\n First, oscillations, or sudden swings in power flow, hit the grid. It’s still unclear what caused them. Spain’s main grid operator took steps to control the oscillations, including sending less power to France. While these actions helped dampen the oscillations, they caused the voltage to surge upwards.<\/p>\n Voltage is like pressure in a water system. Just like it’s key to have a certain amount of pressure for water to flow, there needs to be a certain amount of voltage to push electrons through a circuit. But voltage can’t be too high, or it can cause short circuits or even fires.<\/p>\n When the voltage surged, transformers and power plants shut down. Antonio G\u00f3mez-Exp\u00f3sito, electrical engineering professor at University of Seville, says the outage shows that Spain needs more regulations around controlling voltage.<\/p>\n The expert panel report, like other recent analyses from Spain’s government<\/a> and main grid operator<\/a>, does not indicate that reliance on solar or wind power led to the outage. The panel will issue a final report next year.<\/p>\n Newell says the immediate accusations against renewable energy didn’t surprise many people who study attacks on climate solutions. “We’ve known this has been a recurring issue,” Newell says. “The big frame is that ‘renewables are bad and we can’t trust them’.”<\/p>\n Renewable critics said blackout was caused by lack of “inertia” – it wasn’t <\/p>\n When critics of renewable energy pointed the finger at solar or wind for causing the blackout, many used one word: inertia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Michael Shellenberger, a longtime critic of renewable energy and proponent of nuclear power with 1.4 million followers on X, said in a post the day of the blackout, “Renewables don’t risk blackouts, said the media. But they did and they do\u2026 it’s clear that too little ‘inertia’ due to excess solar resulted in system collapse.”<\/p>\n Inertia is important to the electrical grid because it can help stabilize sudden fluctuations in a grid’s frequency. Power plants that run on gas, coal or nuclear use large spinning turbines that create electricity and have inertia. More modern power resources, like wind, solar, and batteries, don’t involve inertia, because they are digitally controlled. “Wind and solar plants either have no inertia or very little,” G\u00f3mez-Exp\u00f3sito says, “but in return, they have infinitely greater response speeds.”<\/p>\n There is no indication that a lack of inertia was the cause of the outage, G\u00f3mez-Exp\u00f3sito says. Spain’s main grid operator, Red El\u00e9ctrica<\/a>, released a report about the outage this summer. “The incident was not caused by an inertia problem,” it said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n When the power went out in Texas in 2021, many were quick to blame solar and wind. Investigations ultimately found that the outage’s cause was gas and coal plants that were forced offline because of freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n Montinique Monroe\/Getty Images North America<\/p>\n hide caption\n <\/p>\n toggle caption<\/p>\n Montinique Monroe\/Getty Images North America<\/p>\n Renewable misinformation has an impact <\/p>\n False claims that too much reliance on solar and wind caused the blackout in Spain and Portugal fit into broader attacks on renewable energy.<\/p>\n In winter 2021, a massive power outage hit Texas. Investigations ultimately found that the outage’s cause was gas and coal plants that were forced offline because of freezing temperatures. But critics of renewable energy blamed solar and wind, says Timmons Roberts<\/a>, professor of environmental studies and sociology at Brown University.<\/p>\n \u200a”In 2021, again, there was uncertainty on what caused it, but immediately there were attacks on renewable energy,” Roberts says. “\u200aSort of exploiting, taking advantage of a crisis to make unfounded accusations.”<\/p>\n Shortly after the power went out in Spain, Newell and his team from the Climate Action Against<\/a> Disinformation Coalition<\/a> decided to do a survey about false narratives in the blackout’s wake<\/a>. They surveyed 1,200 people in Spain and 1,200 in the United Kingdom \u2013 because many in the U.K. were also paying attention to the outage.<\/p>\n They found seven in ten in Spain and six in ten in the U.K. fell for at least one false narrative about the blackout causes. The most commonly believed false narrative was that the reliance on renewables was at fault.<\/p>\n Newell says while most of the survey respondents acknowledge the reality of climate change, misinformation led many to question the reliability of renewable energy.<\/p>\n \n Solar panels on rooftops in California. The use of solar plus batteries helped California prevent blackouts in 2022 when there was a heatwave and gas plants were under performing.<\/p>\n Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images\/Getty Images North America<\/p>\n hide caption\n <\/p>\n toggle caption<\/p>\n Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images\/Getty Images North America<\/p>\n Renewable energy plus batteries proving to be reliable in warming world <\/p>\n Solar and wind resources are already proving to be part of a reliable grid, says Elliot Mainzer<\/a>, chief executive of the California Independent System Operator, which assures the reliability of California’s grid. California was powered by two-thirds clean energy in 2023, the latest year for which data is available.<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/683x683+273+0\/resize\/100\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd3%2F8e%2Fa39610ed4c3e8021184827ee0bb7%2Fap25118432680485.jpg\")
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