The U.S.’s day without the sun just gave us a glimpse of how a power grid that relies on clean energy might struggle with future climate challenges — and how we can plan ahead to overcome them.
I was lucky enough to be in New York’s path of totality for Monday’s eclipse, where we saw a small dip in renewable power production when the moon blocked the sun. In hydropower-heavy New York, that solar power slip was easily overcome with other clean energy.
The country’s solar generation capacity has grown eightfold in the last decade and now accounts for nearly 4% of the nation’s electricity, according to a nonprofit’s report out last week. And given that the eclipse would dent solar production even in places that weren’t along the path of totality, the event was set to be a test for regional grids that increasingly rely on renewables, experts said. Texas, with its standalone power grid, status as one of the country’s top solar producers, and location right on the path of totality, had a lot of planning to do.
When the 2017 eclipse darkened the country, there was a lot more fossil fuel power still on the grid to make up for a mid-day nighttime, one grid expert told The Hill. But there also weren’t many batteries on the grid back in 2017 either, and those kicked as much as 1.4 GW of power to the grid in Texas on Monday, Heatmap reports. The state relied on its still-strong gas and coal generation as well.
It also helped that grid operators were more than prepared for the eclipse, and could model their response after the sunsets they see every day. But Monday’s celestial event will help them get ready for a future filled with even more renewables, especially if we see more wildfire smoke, storms, or other sun-blocking events as the climate changes.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
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