Blackouts and Silver Linings: Balancing electrical networks in the age of renewable energy

April 28th, 2025: a widespread blackout leaves 60 million people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France without power for more than 10 hours .After several weeks of finger pointing among experts, the government finally declares that photovoltaic production is not to blame. In fact, multiple power plants, including thermal and nuclear generators, have failed to provide adequate voltage control and dynamic reactive power support despite being physically capable and financially incentivised to do so.But does this tell the whole story?In this note, we review the facts and attempt to demonstrate that the search for a culprit is futile. In many countries,  sovereign choices are driving the rapid expansion of intermittent and variable electricity sources: while each may be contested on its merits, we believe it is more urgent to reflect on the conditions that will determine their success.  In particular, as the deployment of renewable energy accelerates, new forms of instability and vulnerability are introduced that must be addressed to safeguard the robustness and resilience of future electrical networks.We seek, therefore, to ascertain which technologies are available – or emerging – to achieve this goal, and whether they can be implemented at an affordable cost, within a reasonable timeframe.