The recent Iberian blackout starkly warns against an ideologically-driven dependence on renewable energy. It offers an even greater caution for a climate change strategy that rests on such a dependency. While much is still unknown about the blackout’s origins, it is clear renewable energy is more expensive, more complex, and less reliable than is popularly promulgated.

Around 12:30pm on April 28, the countries of Spain and Portugal, along with a small portion of southern France lost all power. Almost 80% of the Iberian peninsula’s grid came from renewables, with 60% coming from solar. It took just five seconds to lose 15 gigawatts of electrical capacity. Between the five hours when power started to return, and into the next day when all power was essentially restored, people were stranded, shut down, locked out. 

The reasons why this so suddenly and completely happened are still unknown and under investigation. What is known is that dependence on renewable energy is far more complex and expensive than commonly proclaimed.

It has long been known that dependence on renewable energy is risky. A paper on the blackout by Rice University’s Baker Institute explains that conventional power plants, usually hydroelectric, thermal, or nuclear, have a self-correcting capability (synchronous generators) that aid in stabilizing “grid frequency and voltage during sudden fluctuations or imbalances.”