Solar farm destroyed by hail

[Red Squirrel]

Solar farm pelted by giant hail as severe storm ripped through Nebraska

The 4.375 MWac solar farm was damaged June 23 by the same storm cell that tore through a Wyoming coal mine, leaving eight people injured.

www.renewableenergyworld.com

Ouch, that totally sucks. There is really not any simple way to protect from that either. Hail tends to come completely out of nowhere so don't have time to have someone go put plywood over them or something, and if you automated it that means having mechanical moving parts that need to be able to also survive wind.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Just set up an array of whiskey glasses above the panels with some 18 year Balvinie nearby and problem solved.

 

[RnR_au]

There is really not any simple way to protect from that either.

From the article;

According to kWh Analytics, an asset insurance provider, moving panels into hail stow mode, where trackers are placed in a high degree tilt to reduce the impact energy of hailstones, is an effective mitigation technique that can reduce property insurance premiums up to 35%.

Sounds like there are ways to mitigate damage. And its not like hail comes out of nowhere. Weather radars can see dangerous conditions well in advance and its up to the managers of solar farms to activate any plans following precautionary principles.

 

[dullard]

1) Solar panels often still work with damage, just at a lower efficiency than before.
2) Solar panels are dirt cheap and easy to replace. The vast majority of the solar cost is the land + mounts + motors to move them + electrical lines + inverters + all other compliance equipment. None of which should be impacted much by storms.

But, since this is making the rounds on all conservative media, points #1 and #2 are irrelevant to them.

 

[FelixDeCat]

The hand out that they gave my brother back in 2020 when he installed solar said the panels were "hail proof" up to baseball size rocks. So far they have held up through many hail storms but none were that large....yet.

 

[Captante]

Not sure why some sort of steel/alloy mesh couldn't be installed to protect the surface of the cells?

Sure it would block a minimal amount of the sun's energy and add weight/complexity but my guess is in severe weather it would be worth the effort.

 

[nakedfrog]

From the article;


Sounds like there are ways to mitigate damage. And its not like hail comes out of nowhere. Weather radars can see dangerous conditions well in advance and its up to the managers of solar farms to activate any plans following precautionary principles.

Yeah, the thing is that he's an idiot and always goes off his knee-jerk reaction without bothering to inform himself unless it's from a known conspiracy theory source.

 

[Ajay]

From the article;


Sounds like there are ways to mitigate damage. And its not like hail comes out of nowhere. Weather radars can see dangerous conditions well in advance and its up to the managers of solar farms to activate any plans following precautionary principles.

And supposedly the system was activated - but, for whatever reason, didn't actually change the inclination of the panels.

 

[Captante]

And supposedly the system was activated - but, for whatever reason, didn't actually change the inclination of the panels.

In some possible severe weather scenarios I can picture, the only way to really protect the panels would be to move them underground that's the challenge here.

An F4 or F5 tornado will really ruin a solar farms whole day no matter what angle those panels are at ... they'll just stay airborne for a shorter distance maybe!

 

[Ajay]

In some possible severe weather scenarios I can picture, the only way to really protect the panels would be to move them underground that's the challenge here.

An F4 or F5 tornado will really ruin a solar farms whole day no matter what angle those panels are at ... they'll just stay airborne for a shorter distance maybe!

True, but then Solar would become uncompetitive. So mitigation and insurance are the best options.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Speaking of underground, there's that whole Geotherrmal thing if they can bore deep enough to get enough heat to spin turbines.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Speaking of underground, there's that whole Geotherrmal thing if they can bore deep enough to get enough heat to spin turbines.

We can tap the Yellowstone Caldera. We have to be careful though - we dont wind up getting 30% of America covered in pyroclastic flow and lava from the gigatonnes of magma.

 

[Red Squirrel]

1) Solar panels often still work with damage, just at a lower efficiency than before.
2) Solar panels are dirt cheap and easy to replace. The vast majority of the solar cost is the land + mounts + motors to move them + electrical lines + inverters + all other compliance equipment. None of which should be impacted much by storms.

But, since this is making the rounds on all conservative media, points #1 and #2 are irrelevant to them.

At that scale it's not cheap though as there are so many of them. They can try to sell them for cheap to people who want to try their hand at fixing them though. It could just be the thing of adding a clear epoxy layer on top to stop any water ingress.

I just picked up 4 245w solar panels for pretty cheap myself from a local solar farm as they were under performing within warranty period so they are replacing them all. They are still at 90% or so efficiency but that loss adds up for a big farm.

 

[balloonshark]

Use a golf club to protect from golf ball sized hail.

Use a baseball bat to protect from baseball and softball sized hail.

Use Gallagher's hammer to protect from grapefruit size hail.

 

[drnickriviera]

At that scale it's not cheap though as there are so many of them. They can try to sell them for cheap to people who want to try their hand at fixing them though. It could just be the thing of adding a clear epoxy layer on top to stop any water ingress.

I just picked up 4 245w solar panels for pretty cheap myself from a local solar farm as they were under performing within warranty period so they are replacing them all. They are still at 90% or so efficiency but that loss adds up for a big farm.

I'd say at that scale they should be able to easily replace them at 35c/w. I'd guess closer to 25-30c/w. So like $1-$1.5 million in panels. Really not that horrible a price.

 

[Captante]

True, but then Solar would become uncompetitive. So mitigation and insurance are the best options.

No doubt. It's way cheaper to just buy 500 more cheap Chinese solar panels when they get wiped out!

 

[Zorba]

Ithe thing is that he's an idiot and always goes off his knee-jerk reaction without bothering to inform himself unless it's from a known conspiracy theory source.

I think he is generally pro-Solar, though.

 

[Jon-T]

I think he is generally pro-Solar, though.

He has made plenty of posts in the past about his solar panel array and battery backup. Probably the most solar powered poster here. Probably why seeing them wiped out by hail alarmed him

 

[AndImSinging]

Rest in peace.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I believe that would be 'pieces', Bot.

 

[Charmonium]

Speaking of underground, there's that whole Geotherrmal thing if they can bore deep enough to get enough heat to spin turbines.

The subterranean temp is a constant 60+ F degrees all year round. So using ground water with a heat pump is a very plausible alternative to pure electric heat and cooling.

In the Scouts, we used to go spelunking and the caves were always at a constant temp. The problem though is that they were also wet and even at 60+ degrees, being wet is not fun.

Anyway, I'm eventually going to get a heat pump system installed but for now, the oil furnace isn't a bad option except for recently when a barrel of oil was over $80. It's now down below $70 but that takes a while to bubble thru to retail prices. Last batch of 200 gallons was a shade over $800

 

[dave_the_nerd]

From the article;


Sounds like there are ways to mitigate damage. And its not like hail comes out of nowhere. Weather radars can see dangerous conditions well in advance and its up to the managers of solar farms to activate any plans following precautionary principles.

Seems to me, if you "stow" the panels at a certain angle, that's assuming the hail will come in inside a certain range of angles, too. Like angled armor on a battleship.

My house was hit in '22 by some nasty stuff coming in at like a 45 degree angle in high winds. Did a real number of the siding on the north side of the house (and totaled my car, but that's less relevant.)

 

[Ajay]

Seems to me, if you "stow" the panels at a certain angle, that's assuming the hail will come in inside a certain range of angles, too. Like angled armor on a battleship.

My house was hit in '22 by some nasty stuff coming in at like a 45 degree angle in high winds. Did a real number of the siding on the north side of the house (and totaled my car, but that's less relevant.)

If the panels were made in two parts, they could fold and protect the critical parts of the array.

 

[dullard]

Seems to me, if you "stow" the panels at a certain angle, that's assuming the hail will come in inside a certain range of angles, too. Like angled armor on a battleship.

My house was hit in '22 by some nasty stuff coming in at like a 45 degree angle in high winds. Did a real number of the siding on the north side of the house (and totaled my car, but that's less relevant.)

The original article mentioned stowing. Read the "Stow Early Stow Often" Section. They just didn't appear to bother to stow them before this storm came through.

I think these were the panels used in this disaster: http://www.jasolar.com/uploadfile/2018/0807/20180807053738266.pdf . Not a single mention of which hail rating test was used to test the panels (part of the IEC 61215 certification). They could have only tested 0.49 inch hail at 13.4 mph and still got that certification.

The solar panels I have on my house were tested and withstood a high hail rating in that standard (passed being pelted by 1.38 inch hail at 61 mph): https://usa.recgroup.com/sites/defa..._n-peak_2_black_series_en_us.pdf?t=1702665619 Some panels pass even higher tests in that standard (can pass tests of up to 2.95 inch hail at 88.4 mph).

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I wonder if there might be some way to deploy a net over them .... It would probably be too expensive. It sounds like they either need to be able to change the angle automatically, or else increase the strength of the top layer.