When smoke from the Canada wildfires drifted into the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. last week, creating haze and an otherworldly orange glow, it not only diminished air quality, but it reduced solar power generation by making it more difficult for solar panels to absorb sunlight.
By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
Last week, the electricity coming from New England solar farms was 56 percent less during peak times than the previous week, according to Bloomberg.
In the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, solar power generation was reduced by a quarter.
Solar energy production in New York State, one of the areas most affected by the smoke from the blazes, was reduced by 1,466 megawatts (MW) from June 6 to June 7, a tweet from New York ISO said. One MW produces enough electricity to power about 800 to 1,000 homes.
“The surface smoke pollution from New York to the D.C. region is easily the most significant since at least July 2002, when a similar situation occurred with nearby fires in Quebec,” said Ryan Stauffer, an atmospheric scientist placed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, at the time of the wildfires, NASA Earth Observatory reported. “This event is rivaling, and in some cases will likely surpass[,] the observed 2002 smoke pollution.”
During wildfires, smoke isn’t the only factor interfering with solar power generation. In areas experiencing heavy amounts of ash, the material will accumulate on solar panels and block sunlight, reported Solarponics. Heavy ash sediment can lower power production by 40 percent or more if it isn’t removed.
Because the smoke from Canada’s recent spate of more than 400 wildfires eased temperatures in the affected regions somewhat, air conditioning wasn’t as much of a necessity, which took some pressure off the power grid, The Verge reported.
The climate crisis is causing wildfires and heat waves to become more intense, and the U.S. needs to ramp up its renewable energy output while reducing its use of fossil fuels in order to mitigate global warming.
In 2020, disastrous wildfires reduced solar generation in California — a state that gets 14 percent of its electricity from solar — by 30 percent, reported The Verge previously. The U.S. also saw a record number of blackouts that year, primarily due to fires and extreme weather, The Verge reported at the time.
According to the Energy Information Administration, solar energy comprises only 3.4 percent of the country’s total electricity output, and the wildfires are just another example of climate change putting more pressure on the country’s overtaxed power grids.
The Biden administration has set a target for the nation’s electricity to be generated entirely by renewable sources like solar and wind by 2035.
Cristen is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She holds a JD and an Ocean & Coastal Law Certificate from University of Oregon School of Law and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She is the author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways, as well as the travel biography, Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway’s Life.