Partial solar eclipse in Germany will reduce solar PV output by 4.2 GW on Thursday
Clean Energy Wire
German transmission grid operators (TSO) are preparing for the partial solar eclipse on Thursday, 10 June but are confident that they will be able to balance the lower generation from solar PV plants. The partial eclipse will occur between 11:20 and 13:40 during the peak (lunch) time of solar power generation. Since the solar plants are distributed across Germany, not all are equally affected by the eclipse. TSOs said that they are expecting a reduction of 4.2 gigawatt (GW) while power consumption will remain the same as usual. As a lion share of the generation drop can be accounted for in advance by the marketers of solar power, transmission grid operators only have to take measures to cover for around 1 GW. For this they have tendered additional power to either reduce or increase feed-in if necessary.
During the last, more complete solar eclipse in 2015, the effect on PV generation in Germany was greater: there was approximately 17 percent less solar electricity output. In 2021, the impact is weaker, although there has been an increase in PV installations from about 40 GW (2015) to 51 GW (2021) in the last six years, grid operator TenneT said. The next partial solar eclipse will occur on 25 October 2022 and a more severe one will follow on 29 March, 2025.
