Huge Solar Storm Could Cause ‘Global Power Shortage’, Experts Worry

Experts have warned about the prospect of an enormous solar storm in the future, which could well result in a ‘global power shortage’.

An alert from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cautioned that there could be ‘weak power grid fluctuations’ as well as satellite ‘orientation irregularities’, with the potential to increase drag on aircraft in low orbit.

Although certainly noticeable, this particular storm was regarded as moderate, with the intensity of such solar storms measured on a scale of G1 to G5. However, University of Reading Professor Mathew Owen has warned that a far more destructive G5 storm day hit could one day hit Earth.

The thing we really worry about is the power system. If you’ve got a really intense storm, you can get additional currents flowing in your power system and at some point, your transformers just can’t handle that anymore, so a really intense storm could burn out transformers.

Professor Owen added that the effects of such a storm could well last for weeks:

These transformers are not easy to replace so it takes a long time to get your grid up and functioning again if they collapse.

You’d hope you could get it up and running within days but worst-case scenario is being without power for weeks.

Some areas of the world may feel the effect of this more than others, with Professor Owens noting that those living in high latitude countries could well be more severely impacted.