News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #42

Solar power during the eclipse, new rules for toxic pollution, fallout from the Key Bridge collapse, victories for the Swiss, and more.

The total solar eclipse as seen from space! Credit NASA Earth Observatory by Michala Garrison and Wanmei Liang,

OF COURSE THE ECLIPSE WAS A DARK OMEN BUT WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR THE GRID?: Backup power systems, engage! (Heatmap News)

For those experiencing eclipse-coverage withdrawal, look no further: this article from Heatmap will explain just how the grid dealt with significantly less solar energy during the total eclipse. (Once again, the moon does us dirty…)

In places where a lot of energy comes from solar power generation and the eclipse happened to pass through, there was a big drop in electricity coming from solar, which was mainly filled in by natural gas, hydropower, and increased battery capacity. (And while demand mostly stayed high, internet use dropped by about 40-60 percent during the eclipse since everyone got off their phones for 30 seconds to burn holes in their retinas.)

Why does this matter, if there isn’t going to be another solar eclipse in the US until 2044? Because dealing with grid reliability and having adequate back-up power (and where that power comes from) are issues that grid operators (and by extension, all users of the grid) are going to be dealing with more and more, “as a growing a portion of the generation fleet can drop off the grid due to weather and climate conditions — like, say, clouds of smoke from a wildfire.”

WEIGHING THE TRADE-OFFS: How to balance the short-term harm of dam removal with long-term gains for natural river systems (Inside Climate News)