As the world accelerates toward a cleaner energy future, ensuring energy security remains a complex challenge. A severe blackout in Spain and Portugal in April 2025 exposed critical vulnerabilities tied to intermittent renewable energy, aging grid infrastructure, and insufficient contingency planning.
Energy security—defined by the United Nations as the continuous availability of affordable energy—hinges on the “Four A’s”: availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability. The blackout revealed weaknesses in all three except affordability, highlighting the risks of relying heavily on variable renewables without adequate storage and grid resilience.
Renewable energy is central to achieving net-zero emissions and reducing geopolitical risks, but its integration demands smart grids, energy storage, and modern infrastructure. The transition faces technical, regulatory, and social hurdles.
The UN’s Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) is providing global engineering expertise to support this shift, addressing barriers like financing, skills gaps, and fragmented regulations.
Building a secure, sustainable energy future will require coordinated investment, regulation modernization, public engagement, and cross-border cooperation to balance innovation, reliability, and inclusivity—meeting the needs of both people and the planet.
Authors: Prof. Nicolaos Theodossiou
Editors: Giuseppe Francaviglia & Samrat Choudhury
Published on: July 14, 2025
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Published by: 360info
Originally published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 by 360info™.
This article is part of the Science-Policy Briefs series, produced through the collaboration between the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Aeiphoria (AE4RIA), an alliance of prestigious research and innovation institutions, and 360info, a not-for-profit wire service delivering free, research-based, solutions-focused journalism by experts. The series aims to translate cutting-edge scientific research into accessible, actionable insights for policymakers and the wider public, supporting evidence-informed decision-making on key sustainable development challenges.
Photo: © Outages in Spain and Portugal (CIRA 2025-04-29) JPSS imagery: CSU/CIRA & NOAA/NESDIS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons