While hundreds of thousands of Northwest residents were looking up, power companies were monitoring just how much solar power they lost during Monday’s sky-darkening eclipse.Managing the power grid is kind of a balancing act. If you need to turn on a light, that power needs to be available.
So when the moon briefly blocked the sun, that could have been a problem for power companies.
But in the Northwest, it wasn’t too much of a concern. In part, that’s because the region’s plentiful hydropower was available to make up for the momentary reduction in electricity generated by solar arrays.Another reason the eclipse was a minor event for the region’s power grid: it just doesn’t have that much solar energy yet.
In Oregon, there is 104 megawatts of installed solar capacity; Washington has about 18 megawatts, according to Renewable Northwest, a renewable power advocacy group.