Solar power firms scramble in eclipse
Vulnerabilities of renewable sources underlined as sunlight diminishes
Power prices in Germany fluttered as the first eclipse of the emerging solar age passed and utility operators worked overtime to keep the grid supplied.
The moon blocked about 80 per cent of the sun’s light across Europe from about 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. London time Friday. That briefly switched off and then on again thousands of panels that on the brightest days fuel 40 per cent of Germany’s power.
The phenomena highlighted the variable flows of electricity coming from such renewables as solar and wind. Coping with that intermittency has risen as an issue for grid operators as Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed for cleaner forms of energy to replace nuclear reactors.
“It will be a challenge but we can manage it,” Urban Keussen, CEO of the grid company TenneT TSO GmbH, said as the skies darkened at an operating station near Lehrte about 200 kilometres west of Berlin. “We can’t ignore the volatile production of renewables. We need to expand and modernize the grids.”
TenneT brought in eight gigawatts of generating capacity to balance the grid against solar power that dropped out as the eclipse passed, double the usual rate. It also kept hydropower plants that store energy on standby and coordinated its flows with neighbouring grid operators.
While there were no reports of power shortages, prices for elec- tricity in wholesale markets both surged and dipped for a short time.
“It would have been difficult to deal with a situation like today without conventional power plants,” Philipp Goetz, consultant at Energy Brainpool in Berlin. “The market has reacted well. People made an effort to buy or sell the power on the market. Only about 30 per cent of the balancing power tendered had to be called for by the grid operators. So we haven’t been at the verge of a blackout.”
While eclipses are relatively rare events, policy-makers are concerned that further expanding renewables will make strains on the grid more routine. Following the meltdown at the Fukushima plant in Japan in 2011, Germany ordered its nuclear plants to close by 2022. Much of that will be replaced by renewables.
China, which is installing more solar panels than any other nation, faces a partial eclipse in March 2016. A total eclipse will cross the U.S. in April 2017.