Spain, Portugal Plunged Into Darkness Amid Widespread Blackouts—What's the Cause?

AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

Widespread blackouts are ongoing as of this writing as large swaths of both Spain and Portugal are currently without power. The cause is as yet undetermined, with various people blaming cyber-attacks, weather phenomena, and/or an overreliance by these European countries on renewable energy.

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Top officials, however, are sticking with the weather phenomenon explanation:

Millions in Spain and Portugal have been left without electricity after widespread power cuts blamed on a “rare atmospheric phenomenon,” with officials warning that it may take up to a week for things to get back to normal.

There is “no indication” that a cyber attack is behind Monday’s large-scale power cuts, Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters on Monday.

The cause of the power cut is still unknown, but it is clear that it “did not originate in Portugal,” Montenegro said.

A “rare atmospheric phenomenon” was blamed for the outages, which affected millions, Portugal’s grid operator, Rede Eletrica Nacional (REN), said in a statement.

The culprit is “induced atmospheric vibration,” according to those officials:

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“Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines, a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration,'” the statement continued.

“These oscillations caused synchronization failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”

However, some, like journalist Michael Shellenberger, have other theories:


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Normal life in Spain has come to nearly a complete halt:

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I live in California, and whenever the power goes out, I’m reminded of just how important electricity is to our modern lifestyles. Almost everything we do relies on energy. For instance, just taking a little drive gets a whole lot more complicated:

The above tweet is parody and is quite long, but read the whole thing if you want a good laugh.

RedState will bring you updates on this developing story as necessary.

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