Cost of eclipse in lost solar power generation

Jeff Liebermann · 2017-08-23T04:55:55+00:00

Wanna guess how much solar generated power California lost due to the eclipse? Start here: The graphs were scraped from the CAISO (California Independent Service Operators) web pile the night after the eclipse: These show the power produced by California solar generation plants and home systems for the day of the eclipse, and the day after. The curve for 2017-08-22 is a typical day with a smooth curve. However, the curve for 2017-08-21, has a chunk missing between 9:00AM and 11:30AM, when the moon partially blocked the sun. The easiest way to calculate the loss in production is to count the number of rectangles that were missing during the eclipse. I superimposed the two graphs and counted 43.5 rectangles. Each rectangle is 200 Megawatts by 1 hr = 200 MWh. While the marginal cost of energy varies radically throughout the day, the average for the day seems to be about $35/MWh (or $0.035/kWh). Therefore: 43.5 rectangles * 200 MWh/square * $35/MWh = $304,500 That's a rather small amount, but that's also only for California. I'll grind the numbers for other states later. So, if someone asks for the cost of an eclipse, we now have a rough answer. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Aug 23, 2017 42 Replies

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Tom Del Rosso 8 years ago

It didn't occur to me until later that I could have taken pictures through the glasses. Missed opportunity.

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Martin Brown 8 years ago

Some very nice pictures at totality taken by one of the US's foremost telescope makers from Casper Wyoming. (enjoy):

---begin quote--- What was supposed to be 2 1/2 minutes of eclipse was over in a flash - seemed like 30 seconds to me. Suddenly Baily's beads and the second Diamond ring appeared and last moment frantic images taken before it was all over. Within a few minutes a heavy cloud passed overhead and hid the sun in a thick haze for the following partials.

Emotions of sad, happy, wonder, and awe were followed by thoughts of the next eclipse.

Diamond Ring has reddish color from thin clouds

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Mini-Diamond Ring Just before 2nd contact

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Mid eclipse corona with subtle colors from the clouds

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Closeup of the prominences

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-- end quote ---

Regards, Martin Brown

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Chris 8 years ago

!! Wow, spectacular. Thanks for the links!

Cheers, Chris

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