On a not-so-sunny day in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, a 5.2 MW solar farm, part of the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD’s) Sunwise program, was recently destroyed by a baseball-sized hailstorm. This incident underscores the vulnerability of green energy infrastructures to extreme weather conditions.
While hailed as the energy source of the future, solar energy’s path seems to be more than a little rocky.
5.2 MW Community Solar Project in Scottsbluff, Nebraska (Source: Matt Larsen/Facebook)
The Scottsbluff 5.2MW Community Solar Farm, a multi-million dollar project that was launched in 2019, consisted of over 14,000 solar panels. The project, declared as a reliable source of clean and cheap energy, was expected to reduce the state’s carbon footprint and combat climate change.
“This project will help the city achieve its goal to reduce our carbon footprint and stabilize city costs for the next 25 years,” said Nathan D. Johnson, City Manager of Scottsbluff.
According to Cowboy State Daily, a hailstorm with estimated wind speeds of 100 to 150 mph destroyed a large portion of the multimillion-dollar project’s panels.
The entire region has experienced strong storms the past week, which included tornadoes, hail, heavy rains and wind.
A tornado destroyed at least one home in Scottsbluff. Much of the damage to the area was from high winds and hail, which brought down power lines, damaged trees and shattered windshields.
Kevin Spencer, Scottsbluff city manager, told Cowboy State Daily the Nebraska Public Power District, which owns the solar farm, is still assessing the damage, but it’s going to need some repairs.
“Just by looking at it, it looks destroyed to me,” Spencer said.
Spencer said there’s more to a solar farm than just the panels, and so some of the equipment at the farm might have survived the storm. He said he was previously told the panels were hail proof, but that might have meant hail up to a certain size.
Solar panels destroyed by large hail north of Scottsbluff, Nebraska last night. #newx Photo Courtesy Matt Larsen #hail pic.twitter.com/2ND7BHmYlB
— Daryl Orr (@WxWyDaryl) June 27, 2023
Tim Newman, the regional Emergency Management Director, told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald last Saturday that a violent storm with a tornado and baseball-sized hail devastated the region last week.
CEO Dwight Patterson of GenPro Energy Solutions announced that business executives will meet with the solar farm owners and insurance evaluators on Thursday to assess the entire impact of the storm, Fox News report.
“Severe weather, like the storm that struck Scottsbluff, is a good example of why renewable energy providers and local electric utilities benefit from strong partnerships,” Patterson told Fox News Digital. “Forces that are sometimes out of our control could impact critical electric power delivery to homes, hospitals and critical infrastructure.”
Patterson said the Scottsbluff Community Solar Project employed top-tier solar panels that can resist most hail storms. He said hailstorms are unlikely to damage the panels, but always remain possible.
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