 USC Professor of Physics and Astronomy Vahe Perumian wrote an article for the conversation about how the advances in solar power in the US mean that power grids are going to have to take unprecedented steps in order to stop the eclipse from causing blackouts. Why is it a bigger problem this time? Because the US has three times the capacity for solar energy generation now than it did the last time there was a total solar eclipse in 2017. What is actually happening to prevent a real issue? So they're readying local reserves, especially if they have battery banks or unaffected sources like natural gas plants, coal plants, stuff like that, making sure that they've got enough in reserve to crank those up. To me, the significance of the story is not that we're worried there's going to be a problem. It's that solar power has reached a large enough percentage of power generation in the United States that they have to think about it ahead of time.