elektroenergetika
POWER SYSTEMS

NEWS

EVENTS		 BOOKS

BLOG 		UNIVERSITIES

NIKOLA TESLA		 LINKS

CONTACT		 elektroenergetika POWER

SYSTEMS
Trending Now: Solar, Wind, Grid

Oct 9, 2026 - What Happens When We Have Too Much Clean Power On The Grid?



What happens when there`s too much renewable energy and nowhere for it to go?
Curtailment is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the energy industry — and it affects every electricity consumer in the US, whether they know it or not. In this video, Ovais Kashif and Sam Anwar from Modo Energy break down exactly what curtailment is, why it happens, and what it actually costs.
When a solar farm or wind farm is forced to stop producing electricity — even though the sun is shining and the wind is blowing — that`s curtailment. It sounds counterintuitive, but it happens every single day across the US power grid.
There are two main reasons a renewable resource gets curtailed. The first is a simple supply and demand mismatch: too much generation, not enough load. Think California in spring — mild temperatures mean air conditioning demand is low, but solar output is climbing fast as daylight hours increase. The grid can`t absorb it all, so solar farms get told to switch off. The second cause is transmission congestion: the energy is being generated in one place (far west Texas, the California desert, the middle of the country for wind), but the wires needed to move it to cities and load centers just aren`t big enough to carry it all.