The more likely threat comes from our enemies, not the sun. It is fairly cheap to guard against EMP. I hope our government is finally doing something about it......
“Cheap to guard against EMP.” You have to change out EVERY device with an IC in it. Not just in consumer goods, but every single commercial and industrial control system. The magnitude of that is staggering...as is the expense. What industry will invest in that with zero return?
Sorry, it may be cheap.
It would be cheap if you build the necessary hardening into new products, but it will take 40 or 50 years to replace all control systems through the normal replacement/upgrade process.
It would take a government order to accelerate that to maybe ten years.
It’s ironic — in the pre-nuclear EMP era, most industrial and commercial control systems were pneumatic. As long as you could keep your air compressors running, you had functioning controls. Pneumatic controls were the ultimate EMP-hardened devices. Over the past 40 years, most control systems converted to electronic and are susceptible and vulnerable, just as our enemies have developed nukes and delivery systems. This is not a good situation we find ourselves in.