The solar eclipse on April 8 will have hordes of Americans’ heads craning skyward in their eclipse glasses. But this rare event might lead you to have more worries than just the possibility of damaging your vision.
With an energy ecosystem increasingly fueled by the power of sunlight, the sky going dark at midday is a big deal. “The impacts on solar generation are actually quite significant,” Barry Mather, chief engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told CNET.
Fortunately, because solar eclipses are extraordinarily predictable, grid operators have had plenty of time to prepare for the effects. Because of that, it’s unlikely most Americans will notice any changes to the electrical system.
Here’s what the 4-minute eclipse means for our electrical grid.
Does the solar eclipse affect solar panels?
A solar eclipse, which causes a temporary loss of sunlight as the moon blocks its rays, matters a lot for the ever-growing supply of solar power deployed in the US.
“The grid will have to figure out, if that energy source goes away even for a few minutes, how to match supply and demand during that window,” said Benjamin Lee, a professor of electrical and systems engineering at University of Pennsylvania.
It might seem like just a blip — the total loss of sunlight will last only for 4 minutes in any one place — but that overlooks the broader impacts of the eclipse.
