“The lamps are going out all over Europe,” British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked the night before Great Britain entered the First World War. “We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Today, the lights went out all over Spain, Portugal, southwestern France, plus parts of Belgium and the Netherlands.
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The blackouts are “widespread and pervasive,” according to Ars Technica, and “trains are not running, airports are unable to operate, and businesses and schools have closed.” Battery backups have kept cellular networks operating for the time being, so at least people can live-tweet the situation.
It’s a very 21st-century European situation when the local trains can’t run, but everybody has their “Designed in California” iPhones in their hands.
Just in.
Mass Blackouts in Spain, Portugal and in part of France.
Every single part of digital life from shops, to traffic lights, hospitals, airports, phones, and trains, all down.pic.twitter.com/ETDgtfE9wk
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 28, 2025
Spain hasn’t gone cashless yet, but this report indicates that while a majority of older shoppers still use cash, younger shoppers rely on contactless payments. Sucks to be them with a cart full of groceries and no way to pay.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said today, “We have no answers, and we aren’t ruling out any hypothesis regarding the blackout.”
Cybersecurity reporter Ryan Gallagher was quoted on Bluesky that a cyber attack has been ruled out, and the problem is likely technical. Red Electrica operates Spain’s grid and says the outage is due to “grid oscillation,” caused by various power sources coming on and offline. Solar and wind power are more prone to causing or amplifying grid oscillations compared to traditional energy sources like coal, natural gas, or nuclear.
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There’s a lesson here about so-called clean energy:
Concerning blackouts in Europe: Spain reportedly went 100% renewables – mostly solar and wind – as of April 16th. 🤔
The hard reality is this: Net-zero isn’t sustainable. pic.twitter.com/EM2T3RQMri
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) April 28, 2025
That isn’t quite accurate; Spain does still have traditional power sources, but they typically provide less than half the country’s electricity. April 16 just happened to be the first day that none of them were needed. If Tom Clancy wrote a thriller where Spain went 100% renewable — and two weeks later the lights went out — his editor would’ve laughed him back to Maryland. “Too on the nose. Not believable.”
There’s another lesson here, and it’s one I wish more people heeded because it’s so obvious that we used to teach it to seemingly every fifth-grade boy: “Be Prepared.”
After a couple of nationwide credit card system crashes — one in 2021 and another in 2024 — I started tucking away enough cash to ride out a similar emergency. Not enough for an intruder to risk getting shot for; just enough for a few days’ worth of basics.
And I might have also ordered an additional 500-1,000 items with brass jackets, if you know what I mean. Those are just in case of a blackout lasting longer than we can keep the big freezer powered. You really don’t want to be the one neighbor who has plenty of solar power but no ammo.
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I kid, I kid.Â
Today, the lights went out all over Western Europe, but they should be back on soon.
Maybe. If the sun shines and the wind blows.
Recommended:Â The Biggest Shot of Adrenaline Into U.S. Manufacturing Since WWII
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