On April 16, Spain announced to the world it had reached a grand achievement: 100% renewable energy on its electrical grid. By April 28, that achievement had turned to catastrophe, when the entire grid collapsed and plunged Spain and Portugal—which imports some electricity from Spain—into chaos. A total grid failure created a blackout that lasted most of the day, affecting tens of millions of people—and threatening to spread to other parts of Europe.

The timeline reveals the future of western nations should they continue to rely on "renewable" energy instead of reliable baseline electricity produced by established, continuous sources.

The Renewable Contagion Infects the Grid

So, what happened to Spain's renewable dream come true?

At midday on Monday, April 28, two sudden fluctuations in the electricity supply, the second of which lasting one and a half seconds, destabilized the grid and caused the entire system to collapse. Total time to two nations going completely dark: Five seconds.

When Spain and Portugal went dark, the activities of tens of millions of people came to a standstill. CNN reported that flights across the Iberian Peninsula were canceled for hours—a remarkable crippling effect for two of the five busiest airports in Europe, along with dozens of others. Traffic signals went out; so did subway systems. Electronic payment terminals and gas pumps became inoperable. Computers and networks across the two nations went completely dark. Commerce and transportation ground to a complete halt.

Thankfully, hospitals continued to run on backup generators—unlike the recent outage at Heathrow Airport, which completely shut down after it its Net Zero-approved biomass generators proved unable to handle the full load after a fire at an electrical substation.

Three elderly people in Spain died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning when they used their own diesel generators during the blackout.