Statement: The Iberian power outage

Following the Iberian power outage of 28 April 2025, and building on our previous joint statement with UNEF (Spanish solar PV association) and the Global Solar Council, SolarPower Europe has issued a further statement: 

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe (she/her): 

“The power outage on 28 April severely impacted millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France. On behalf of the European solar sector, our thoughts are with all those affected.  

The official cause of the outage is not yet known. The investigation is still ongoing, and we urge caution in speculation as to the cause of the outage. We await the official response from the competent authorities. 

What we do know is that the level of renewable contribution to the Iberian grid was not unusually high at the time of the blackout. At the moment of incident, solar PV and wind were only supplying 80% of the Spanish electricity demand. Solar and wind have often reliably served the Iberian Peninsula at equivalent or higher levels.

The power outage clearly outlines the importance of robustness and stability services – which are not an exclusive feature of fossil or thermal power plants. Solar PV systems can provide fast voltage and frequency response and, in combination with batteries and inverters with grid-forming capacities, also provide inertia services.

It is important to recall the intrinsic energy security value of solar and batteries. Solar PV and storage batteries (in ‘island mode’ disconnected from the grid) operate without any problems during grid issues and offer a vital lifeline in times of crisis. That’s reality across the world, whether for hospitals facing Russian attack in Ukraine, in the wake of natural disaster, or during the Iberian blackout. Just one example from recent days; the University of Almeria was able to keep the lights and air-conditioning on during the blackout thanks to solar PV and batteries.

The Iberian blackout is a stark reminder that there is no room for complacency in strengthening a robust and flexible energy system for Europe. We reiterate our call for efforts to focus on system flexibility, in particular battery storage with grid-forming capacities. We urge the European Commission to double-down on their efforts here and come forward with an EU Energy System Flexibility Package, and an Energy Storage Action Plan.”

Notes

• Inertia in electricity grids is the energy stored in big spinning machines like turbines, which helps keep the power supply stable. When something changes suddenly, this energy slows down how fast the electricity frequency changes, giving time to fix the problem.
• Grid-following inverters need an existing grid to operate and match their output to it. Grid-forming inverters can create their own voltage and frequency, helping to stabilise or even restart the grid.
• Fast voltage from solar PV systems means the quick response of the inverter to help stabilise voltage when there are sudden changes in sunlight or grid conditions. The inverter can rapidly adjust how much power it sends or absorbs to keep the voltage steady.

Fast frequency response from PV systems is when the inverter quickly changes the power output to help keep the grid frequency stable. It reacts in seconds when there’s a sudden imbalance between electricity supply and demand.