German power net survives solar eclipse | Alternative Energy | Forums

Interesting, hadn't thought about that being an issue

At 38.5 gigawatts of capacity - nearly half of Europe's total of 89 gigawatts - Germany has more solar PV installed than any other nation. With Friday a bright sunny day, there were worries ahead of time about the consequences of the solar eclipse scheduled to occur in the morning. Engineers knew it would cause a massive, sudden drop in solar electricity input - followed by a massive increase when the eclipse came to an end later in the morning.

There had never been such a massive and rapid drop and rapid increase in solar power before in Germany. The eclipse cut off 65 to 80 percent of incoming sunlight, depending on one's vantage point.

The task faced by engineers at Germany's four big electricity network operating companies was to make sure that the resultant huge solar power production fluctuation wouldn't destabilize the grid.

The engineers carefully prepared measures well ahead of time, coordinated all across Germany, aimed at stabilizing electricity supplies by ramping fossil-fuelled power plants up and down, timed carefully to offset the solar eclipse, so as to avoid any sudden voltage fluctuations that might cause the grid to crash.

http://www.dw.de/ger.....a-18331190