Trains stopped. Phones cut off. When the Iberia Peninsula’s electricity grid collapsed in a matter of minutes recently, daily life came to a crashing halt.  

Many critics immediately blamed renewables. Sun and wind generated more than half of Spain’s electricity last year, up from about a quarter 15 years ago. The rapid increase has put Spain at the forefront of Europe’s transition to renewable energy, just as pressure rises to curtail the continent’s green hopes. Under pressure to bring down high energy prices and increase competitiveness, Europe’s voters are turning against Green parties, and leaders are voicing “climate fatigue” by asking for a “regulatory pause” on environmental legislation. 

But blaming the sun is the new version of energy flat-earthism. Renewables did not cause the outage. Wind and solar have reduced Spanish wholesale prices by 20% in the last three years and could cut them by 20% by 2030. Nuclear energy is not a solution; what’s needed is reform of our energy grids.

The Iberian electricity grid was designed using the principles of the last century and is fit for large power plants with physical rotation and mechanical inertia. Renewables are not the problem; it’s the absence of the necessary elements to integrate them: storage, advanced electronics, and a regulatory architecture adapted to their nature. 

If we want to understand how to move from blackout to the energy vanguard, look at Australia. In 2016, South Australia suffered a similar blackout. Instead of blaming renewables, Australians invested in solutions: installing what was then the world’s largest battery (Hornsdale Power Reserve), redesigning frequency control systems, and creating markets that reward flexibility. Eight years later, that region operates with 70% renewables on average per year, and without cuts. The network is resilient, cheap, and modern.  

Lessons from Texas are also instructive: With a notoriously independent and poorly connected electrical system, the state has faced scorching summers and frigid winters. What has prevented blackouts? Batteries. In August 2024, the 4 gigawatts supported the 17 gigawatts of solar in peak production. Despite the present Trump administration rollback of support for renewables, a federal study found that failures in natural gas-fueled plants, which can struggle in extreme heat and cold, caused the 2021 winter storm, which crippled the power grid and killed more than 240 people. 

Nuclear energy, with its operational rigidity, does not play a relevant role in these critical moments. It is expensive, slow, and rigid. Nuclear proponents insist that it provides “stability” to the system. They confuse terms: a nuclear reactor does not provide flexibility, but rigidity. Its economic viability requires operating at 100% for most of the year. In a system where the price of electricity can turn negative due to excess renewable supply, this inflexibility represents a huge problem. 

In addition, nuclear costs are unsustainable. Hinkley Point C, the great British project, has been under construction for more than 15 years and has tripled its original budget. The real costs of the nuclear kilowatt are double or triple those of solar and wind, even when the latter include storage. As if that were not enough, each nuclear reactor inhibits the entry of more renewables, as it requires dispatch priority to amortize its investment. A system that wants to be renewable and that wants to capitalize on the advantage of its high sunshine cannot afford this burden. 

The Spanish blackout was a failure of management, not of technology. It was the result of a sudden loss of renewable generation and the automatic disconnection of installations that were not prepared to withstand frequency variations. What was missing? Synthetic inertia, advanced frequency control, millisecond-responsive storage, and network standards that require each electronic inverter to behave like a stabilizer, not a mere generator. 

Technically, this is a solved problem. Technologies such as grid-forming converters, grid-tied batteries, and rapid response systems are already used. Why not in Spain? Because the rules do not reward them. We continue to operate under regulations designed for thermal and nuclear energy. It’s not the sun’s fault; it’s the regulator’s fault. 

The future is renewable, distributed, flexible — and cheap. Spain has sun, wind, technology, and the know-how to lead the global energy transition. The only thing missing is an update for the rules of the game so that this leadership translates into stability, resilience, and low cost. The future is not built with €10,000/kW reactors and fifteen years of waiting, but with solar panels installed in weeks and batteries that respond in milliseconds. 

We do not need more nuclear power. We need more common sense and less energy flat-earthing. 

Enrique Dans is a non-resident senior fellow in the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He is a Professor of Innovation at IE University in Madrid. 

Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions expressed on Bandwidth are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.

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