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ECONOMIC DARKNESS
US $ 8.37m
The UK grid operators had to pay an additional US $ 8.37m to ensure grid power stayed on during the total eclipse
Following the UK’ s fifth heatwave, the recent eclipse, while an awe-inspiring site, couldn’ t have come at a more inconvenient time for solar energy. The eclipse, the fullest of its kind in nearly 30 years, caused a major strain on the UK’ s grid operators, which had to pay £ 6.2m( US $ 8.37m) for extra electricity to ensure power, increased by air conditioning and fans to combat the heat, stayed on. Electricity demand is usually higher in winter, but this marks the first time that supply warnings were issued in the summer due to frequent heatwaves. Jess Ralston, Head of Energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, says the only way to bring rising temperatures down and relieve the grid of this kind of pressure is by achieving net zero, rolling out more
renewables and upgrading the grid after businesschief. com 19 decades of underinvestment