Don't Believe The Hype: Total Solar Eclipse Won't Cause Issues With Power Grids

Last spring's partial eclipse over the U.S. didn't reduce electricity at all, and neither will the upcoming total solar eclipse A total solar eclipse is coming, and the predictable fear-mongering in the media is in full swing. You'll read stories predicting millions of people will descend on rural communities, causing panic about supplies, gas, and vandalism. Other stories talk about gridlock on the roads across the U.S. in the days before and after April 8. However, this week's obsession in the media seems to be about a potential strain on electrical throughout areas where the moon's central shadow will pass over.

As with most of the other stories, they are completely unwarranted. Yes, the reduction in solar power within the moon's shadow is expected to have a small effect on solar power generation. According to Solcast, the U.S. faces an estimated energy loss of 39.9 GWh as the moon's shadow sweeps across North America. That's equivalent to the daily energy use of 1.3 million U.S. homes. Solar power from solar farms, residential rooftops, and community solar arrays generated 164.5 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2023-about 3.9% of electricity in the U.S.-according to EIA.

In Texas, where it's closer to 6%, the moon's shadow will pass over the state between 12:10 p.m. and 3:10 p.m. CDT on April 8. According to KXII, Texas could lose up to 16% of solar energy. However, an eclipse of the sun is not much different from a sunset and sunrise in the middle of the day. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas "does not expect any grid reliability concerns during the eclipse," a representative told CBS News. ERCOT has not asked the population to reduce power use during the eclipse.

Although it happened less than seven years ago, very little attention has been paid to what happened during the last total solar eclipse in the U.S. on August 21, 2017. It was the first of its kind in 99 years and saw a path of totality travel from coast to coast across the U.S. So gauging the impact of the coming total solar eclipse is rather simple.

Unsurprisingly, several reports on solar generation during 2017's brief eclipse were produced. For example, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported in May 2018 that the drop in utility-scale P.V. was between 4 and 6.5 gigawatts at the eclipse's peak, with the overall energy loss between 5.5 and 11 gigawatt-hours. The impact was judged to be minimal, with the report stating: "The 2017 total solar eclipse came and went without causing any issues to the operation of the North American electric power system." "We have some of the richest data in the entire solar industry, and we can report that the solar eclipse has virtually no change in daily solar energy production," said Raghu Belur, co-founder of solar brand Enphase, one of the companies looking to use the eclipse to promote the use of home batteries.

For the latest on all aspects of April 8's total solar eclipse in North America, check my main feed for new articles each day.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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