The NASA Solar Shield would warn grid operators, giving time to isolate the problem and prevent damage.

There are many things threatening the US National Grid at the moment – rolling blackouts, lack of funding and problems integrating renewable energy – but NASA is working on their defense against another threat: solar storms. NASA’s scheme, dubbed the Solar Shield, will aim to prevent blackouts caused by solar storms through a forecasting system that would enable the Space Agency to pinpoint certain high-risk transformers.