The June 10th eclipse won’t be so amazing in Europe. The moon will cover no more than a quarter of the sun’s disk, which will not produce any effects that can be seen with the naked eye. But for photovoltaic systems, this decrease will be clearly felt, and panel production will decrease as much as possible, especially when there are a lot of photovoltaic cells.

Transmission operators operating in the northern part of Germany – TenneT and 50 Hertz – estimate that the power supplied by photovoltaic cells may be reduced by a maximum of 4.2 GW, of which in the grid they operate – about 2.8 GW. The remaining 1.4 GW may be lost in smaller, not centrally controlled systems.

TenneT and 50 Hertz emphasize that these are theoretical and maximum values, assuming that at the time of the eclipse there will be clear weather and the photovoltaic cells will operate at full capacity. If it is cloudy, then the drops will be less accordingly.

The most important activity of operators is to increase the regulatory reserve. In the event of weather-related fluctuations, operators have prepared additional reserves, allowing to save 0.5 GW of power, or perhaps reduce generation by 0.5 GW.