Europe braces for ‘unprecedented’ power issues from solar eclipse

Tuesday, March 17, 2015
By Paul Martin

by Marie Heuclin
Phys.org
3/17/2014

Europe’s power operators are bracing for potential disruption from the solar eclipse expected Friday, which will knock out almost all solar-generated electricity in an “unprecedented” test for the network.

“The risk of an incident cannot be completely ruled out,” the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (Entso-e) said recently, as 100 times more power is generated from the sun now than during the last eclipse in 1999.

“Solar eclipses have happened before but with the increase of installed photovoltaic energy generation, the risk of an incident could be serious without appropriate countermeasures,” the group said.

“For the first time this is expected to have a relevant impact on the secure operation of the European power system,” warned Entso-e.

If the morning of March 20 turns out to be very sunny—before the eclipse hides the sun—the sudden drop-off in production could reach 34,000 Megawatts, the equivalent of 80 medium-sized conventional power plants.

The drop-off in solar-produced energy could be as much as 75 percent if the sky is cloudless before the eclipse, which will cross Europe, from Portugal to Finland, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm on Friday.

Network operators have put in place unprecedented contingency plans to compensate for what is expected to be a very sudden loss of power from solar sources.

The Rest…HERE

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