For those who live in Texas, the occasional hailstorm is something we experience from time to time. Until moments before ice stones start falling from the sky, there is no way to predict when or where they will happen, but we definitely know they will happen.
Texas isn’t the only state that experiences occasional hailstorms. This map, created by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, using data from the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows that the nation’s entire breadbasket is located in the fairways of frequent hailstorms. ing.
Most people in these areas understand the risks and know that if a particularly severe event occurs, they may have to replace a roof or two in their lifetime. My wife and I were at a theater in downtown Fort Worth in 2022 when we were hit by a severe hailstorm that threw golf ball-sized rocks and left us without a car for several weeks. The car remained in the shop for several weeks as the storm damaged thousands of other cars in the area. Stuff like this happens – we know it, and we need to be prepared to deal with the carnage when it happens.
Anyone with common sense would think that the developers of the large-scale solar industrial sites that are proliferating rapidly throughout Texas and the Midwest would understand that there are risks here as well. Dew. But even if they think about it, it is not obvious to the general public.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is located in one of the most hail-prone areas on the planet, yet solar farms are popping up across the six-county area. Masu. It’s only a matter of time before some or all of these facilities are hit by a hailstorm, but these facilities have no real defense mechanism other than deflecting the hailstorm and changing the tilt angle of the panel array. It seems that it is not equipped. A stone with little damage.
Last week, a major solar array covering more than 3,000 acres of farmland south of Houston was hit by a storm that dumped hail the size of golf balls. Although these stones are not particularly large, some Fort Worth residents murdered in 1995 It happens often, when storms carrying softball-sized rocks hit the annual outdoor festival called Mayfest. But the array, located outside Damon, Texas, has no defenses in place. devastated as a result.
An X user who posted a video of the massacre asked a very good question. “Who will pay for the disruption?” Since the solar developer has some form of insurance, it is likely that initial repairs will be covered by both parties.
However, in the long run, it is reasonable to expect that these costs will inevitably be passed on to Texas utility customers in the form of inflated electricity rates. Federal taxpayers also end up footing some of the bills for dilapidated solar facilities in the form of even higher subsidies that are inevitably required to keep developers and their industrial facilities afloat. Become.
Another cost that proponents of so-called “clean” energy like solar power prefer to avoid talking about is the cost of disposing of these thousands of damaged panels and properly disposing of their toxic components. This is the cost of recycling. Proponents love to wax eloquent about how easy it is to recycle these items, but the truth is that very few recycling facilities currently exist and most of these items end up at local dumps. Probably only. Unfortunately, neither Texas nor obviously other states in the United States have sophisticated regulations governing these.
This is just one part of the national mess that America and other Western countries are furiously creating as they aim for a nebulous and unspecified “net zero” by 2050. We are just beginning to experience the consequences that are to come. .
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent his 40 years in the oil and gas business, specializing in public policy and communications.
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