Written by Stephen Knell, Co-founder at AerialData. A UAS operator working across Europe, specialising in LiDAR, thermal, multispectral and visual inspections.
On 28 April 2025, Spain and Portugal were plunged into an unexpected and prolonged blackout. Power was lost for over ten hours across the Iberian Peninsula, disrupting millions of lives, halting trains, and raising uncomfortable questions about the reliability of a grid increasingly dependent on renewable energy.
Initial reports from Red Eléctrica de España (REE) pointed to “two incidents of energy generation loss, probably from solar plants” in south-west Spain. While authorities have not yet published a full technical breakdown, the timing has fuelled debate. At the time of the blackout, Spain was generating more than 53% of its electricity from renewables, with solar alone contributing 59%. Some critics have questioned whether the energy transition has introduced new vulnerabilities into the system.
However, REE and energy experts reject this claim. Beatriz Corredor, REE’s president, clarified: “Linking what happened on Monday to renewables isn’t correct. Renewables work in a stable way.” The issue, she explained, lies in system dynamics, not the clean technologies themselves.
Still, the incident highlights the growing importance of robust monitoring, data analysis, and fault prediction in renewable systems—an area where drones and LiDAR are proving indispensable in Spain’s evolving energy ecosystem.
The Rise of Drones in Renewable Energy Operations
Spain has emerged as a European leader in integrating drones into the lifecycle of renewable energy assets. From wind turbines to sprawling solar farms, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are transforming how infrastructure is inspected, maintained, and optimised.
Traditional wind turbine inspections once relied on rope-access teams or cranes—methods that are both risky and expensive. Today, drones perform these tasks with greater speed, safety, and precision. Equipped with HD cameras, thermal sensors, and increasingly, LiDAR, drones detect tiny cracks, delaminations, and even internal heat signatures in turbine blades.
Companies like Applus+, in partnership with Spanish startup Alerion, are pioneering fully autonomous drone systems that can inspect a turbine in just 15 minutes. Using technology originally developed for space navigation, Alerion’s drones offer cloud-based data integration, AI-driven fault prediction, and near-zero downtime.
In March 2024, Iberdrola España, in collaboration with Salamanca-based tech firm Arbórea, unveiled the Colibri drone at the Wind Europe Bilbao event. This next-generation drone enables automated, high-resolution inspections of wind turbine blades. Data is transmitted via satellite to Arbórea’s systems, where it is integrated into digital twin models. Using AI, the platform can predict potential faults, improving maintenance cycles and reducing costs.
Spain’s solar revolution has also brought vast photovoltaic installations to arid and remote locations—sites that require regular, high-accuracy inspection. Here, drones fly pre-programmed routes to conduct thermographic and visual checks at the panel level, identifying underperformance and potential electrical faults.
But drones aren’t just limited to generation sites. Utility companies like UFD (a subsidiary of Naturgy) are using long-range BVLOS drones to inspect more than 1,000 kilometres of power lines. When paired with AI platforms such as eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision, these drones can help detect line sag, vegetation encroachment, and structural fatigue—enabling predictive maintenance that reduces the risk of outages.
Preventing the Next Blackout
While drones and LiDAR played no role in causing the 28 April blackout, the crisis highlights how crucial they could be in preventing or diagnosing such incidents going forward. As renewable systems become more decentralised and weather-dependent, the core challenge lies not in generation but in real-time monitoring, coordination, and response.
Suspected generation loss in solar farms, as seen in the April event, might have been mitigated—or even prevented—with real-time diagnostics powered by drones and LiDAR. In remote regions, drones can be airborne within minutes of an alert, far faster than ground crews, whose delays can allow minor faults to escalate into major system disruptions.
Spain’s energy future remains firmly renewable. Despite the blackout, the country is committed to its 2030 targets, which aim for renewables to supply 74% of electricity generation. But with ambition must come resilience. Drones—especially those equipped with LiDAR and AI—are no longer futuristic tools. They are vital to the health, safety, and sustainability of the grid. By expanding their role beyond maintenance into real-time fault detection and grid diagnostics, Spain can lead the world in showing that clean energy and reliable infrastructure are not mutually exclusive.
References
- Wired (2025) – What caused the European power outage?
- The Guardian (2025) – Spain and Portugal returning to normal after blackout
- El País (2025) – La gran avería eléctrica: qué falló
- Reuters (2025) – Sudden loss of power causes massive Iberian blackout
- Alerion – AI-driven drone inspections in renewables
- Applus+ – Drones and AI for wind inspections
- UFD (Naturgy) – BVLOS drone use in grid maintenance
- Iberdrola España – Wind Europe Bilbao, Colibri drone
