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Please see: How does solar power work during an eclipse?
How does solar power work during an eclipse?
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It will be interesting to see how the grid in California will be able to handle the sudden drop in solar power when the eclipse begins and the sudden return of power when the eclipse is over. I'm currently remodeling a home with a Tesla Powerwall 2. We checked its emergency backup operation yesterday in preparation for the eclipse, I think we will be OK.
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California will have a partial eclipse, so they will continue to receive solar energy, although less, and it isn't a "sudden drop". All power utilities must be prepared to continue the demand even if the source stops for a short time, so at the end, nothing happens to the consumers.
BTW, what happens at night? Doesn't all your solar power drops off? Or does the Sun shine 24 hours a day for you?
BTW, what happens at night? Doesn't all your solar power drops off? Or does the Sun shine 24 hours a day for you?
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I think the difference is how abrupt the change is. On a cloudy day the solar production is more or less reduced for the entire time. It's not like a switch which the eclipse will bring. You can get thundershowers of course, complete with dark skies, but those are local and scattered.
It was weird where I was. The intensity was similar to what you'd see in December but the angle was what you'd get in ... August. Definitely different.
We lost about 75% of the sun at our totality in the SF Bay Area. The solar PV output was definitely noticeable. However, there was still plenty of visibility so didn't seem like that big of a deal for driving. I had my special glasses and watched the moon masking the sun, that was cool. But if it takes another 99 years for the same event to happen, I won't be here to witness it.
The total eclipse will last for about 2 minutes. Not a heck of alot to prepare for. A tree falling on the lines or a reckless Model S driver taking out a utility pole is likely to interrupt power for longer.
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Definitely not "sudden". 90 minutes or so on either side of the bell curve. Plenty of time to feather in other production. Easy peasy.
We lost about 70% here in the central valley. I somewhat agree with the previous statement that it did look like a fall/winter day but it almost gave off an eerie glow to everything. The one aspect that definitely was a benefit especially here is that as the eclipse progressed was the morning heat was definitely less than earlier this morning. I opened my door at about 8:30 which faces east and it was quite warm already. By about 9:30 it was noticeably cooler which I'm sure helped reduce grid load from A/C usage and in fact, just a box fan was more enough to keep a cool flow of air for me. I know my neighbor and I talked and certainly wished we could have something like that every day during summer!
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