Portuguese and Spanish authorities are huddling in emergency cabinet meetings to establish the cause of the massive power outage that brought life to a halt across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France during most of Monday 28 April.

As reported by the Independent, between 12.30pm and 12.35 pm local time on Monday, solar PV generation in Spain “plunged by more than 50 per cent to 8 gigawatts (GW) from more than 18 GW.” This accounted for the major part of the overall drop which saw electricity generation in Spain precipitate rapidly from around 27 gigawatts to just over 12 GW. The resulting destabilisation in electricity flows caused the total collapse of the Spanish power system.

While rumours swirl about how mobile phones could be silenced and traffic lights, hospital services, and public transportation cease to work for some 55 million people, a LinkedIn post shared by IFRF President Sauro Pasini makes interesting reading.

The post’s author, Susana Quintana-Plaza, maintains that the blackout “was not the fault of renewables, but rather the lack of fast response, distributed, flexible resources connected to the grid to help absorb fluctuations.” Read the full analysis here.

In a commentary entitled “Don’t blame renewables for Spain’s power outage,” Ron Bousso of Reuters says, “The massive blackout on Monday – the biggest in Europe’s history – should be a stark warning to governments: investments in power storage and grid upgrades must go hand in hand with the expansion of renewables generation.” Read more here.