HOUSTON — At the beginning of April, we sought to VERIFY if the Texas power grid would be affected by the long-anticipated Great American Eclipse. The answer was, yes.
After reaching out to ERCOT, NASA and Dr. Daniel Cohan, the associate professor at Rice University of Environmental Engineering, we learned that Texas solar farms in the path of the April 8 eclipse will see a substantial drop in production. That drop is expected to happen between 12:10 p.m. and 3:10 p.m., according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
"... We still have plenty of other sources that we can turn on and off as needed, especially natural gas power plants. So when it comes to mild weather like we have in the spring, there's plenty of slack in the system," Cohan said. "Plenty of power plants that aren't being used to their fullest that can ramp up and down when the wind and solar vary."
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Information Administration, there are fewer than a dozen solar farms that fall within the anticipated 90% totality on the eastern side of the total eclipse. This includes farms that are within the Houston area.
In the last seven years, Texas has increased its solar production, making the state the second-largest solar producer in the U.S. after California.
You can keep an eye on the grid as the eclipse is happening in Texas by monitoring the ERCOT dashboard. There you can see a snapshot of a snapshot of current energy conditions.
Editor's note: The main video in this story is a VERIFY explaining how the eclipse will affect the power grid.