Baseball-Sized Hail Shattered NE Solar Farm; What Will Weather Extremes Do To Renewable Energy?

[hatrack]

The Scottsbluff solar farm in western Nebraska was built to withstand most hailstones. But the icy pellets that rained down in late June were bigger than baseballs. The hail — part of a larger pattern of severe storms, heat and other extreme weather fueled by climate change — smashed the bulk of Scottsbluff’s glass panels. Designed to power more than 650 local homes, the facility remains out of commission over a month later. Its owner, private developer Arevon Energy Inc., is still tallying the cost.

Solar plants and wind farms are crucial weapons in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions. So it’s a cruel irony that their effectiveness is often hobbled by damage from storms, floods, wildfires and other disasters amplified by global warming. That’s making them harder to insure. Property insurance premiums for US solar facilities have soared as much as 50% over the past year, threatening to slow their rollout and derail global efforts to cut carbon emissions.

Extreme weather has “become a giant risk for the financing of these projects,” said Jason Kaminsky, chief executive officer of solar data and climate insurance provider kWh Analytics. “Anything that increases costs could slow down the deployment of renewable power needed for the energy transition.”

In areas particularly prone to natural disasters, some renewable energy companies have stopped developing projects altogether because of the cost to insure. Lightsource BP, a global solar developer half-owned by oil giant BP Plc, has so far avoided building on the US Gulf Coast near the shore because of hurricane threats. SB Energy, a renewable energy developer backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, has passed on signing leases or acquiring a few early-stage projects in the Midwest and Texas due to hail risk. "Not every project is insurable anymore,” said Kevin Christy, head of innovation and operational excellence in the Americas at Lightsource.

EDIT

https://climatecrocks.com/2023/08/02/extreme-weather-raises-insurance-costs-for-clean-energy-and-everything-else/

[NNadir]

1. It is simply not true that...

..."solar plants and wind turbines are crucial weapons in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions. "

They've proved useless.

If they were the trillions spent on them in this century would not have resulted in the extreme weather we are seeing; the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere would have slower rather than accelerated.

What this reactionary scheme to return to the early 19th century to dependence on the weather, precisely when the weather has been destabilized, was connected to two interests of dangerous fossil fuel companies, one to maintain and increase sales of and dependence on fossil fuels, and two, to assist in the demonization of the only real form of energy that might drive them out of business, nuclear energy. They succeeded in both goals.

[BComplex]

2. The war in Ukraine has shown us that nuclear plants are not the best

alternatives, either. With all the anger and war-like behavior coming out of the crazies, I'd rather rely on solar and wind, and deal with ways to protect their continuity of output.

I like the thousands of solar panels that are up in my neighborhood. A problem there is still better than a problem at a nuclear plant.

[mopinko]

4. the benefits of distributed generation

dont get enough focus, imho.

[NNadir]

7. What "benefits?"

Let me guess. A planet in flames? People around the world dependent on air pollution? Vast ecosystems dying?

The automobile should have demonstrated that distributed energy is distributed pollution.

[mopinko]

8. yada yada yada

[NNadir]

11. Yeah, precisely. 50 years of that reaction has left...

...the planet in flames.

I lost the battle I fought obviously; the "renewables will save us" scheme was embraced and funded at a trillion dollar scale and the results are in:

The planet is in flames and we have billions of people whose lives are at risk if the air conditioning fails

Quoting Jerry Seinfeild, as if a planet burning was a laughable trivial matter, is not something that sits well with me.

For the record, I happen to know the origins of the trivializing phrase not because I ever saw a Seinfield episode, but rather by osmosis.

People objected to me having never seen the show, but I had other priorities. One of these priorities was giving a shit about the future of humanity.

Frankly I see further than most trivializing clowns here and elsewhere.

I am aware that there are lots of people who think giving a shit is laughable.

Like the solar and wind industry about which they chant insipidly while the world burns, they're useless.

[Blues Heron]

12. A trillion is roughly the defense budget for a single year

Its certainly not enough to save the planet, obviously.

[NNadir]

13. No amount of money thrown at the reactionary solar and wind industry will...

...make them useful.

It's well over three trillion dollars on solar and wind in the period between 2004 and 2019 alone, for no result other than the entrenchment of fossil fuels, and the willful industrialization of precious wilderness.

[Blues Heron]

14. They already are useful, every time those blades spin around electricity comes out like magic

I think they look like beautiful kinetic sculptures, but better.

[NNadir]

16. The trillion dollar "kinetic sculptures" will be rotting in 25 years. I'm not interested in bad...

...taste in art.

I'm interested in environmental issues, notably climate change. When I say "useless," I mean that this trillion dollar art project, trashing tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands square kilometers of one time wilderness wilderness, converting to it to industrial parks, has done nothing to address climate change, zero, zilch.

It may be useful to people who want virgin land converted into "kinetic art" at a cost of trillions of dollars, but I'm concerned about a burning planet, dying ecosystems, failing crops, people dying from extreme heat, and all the other stuff that this "kinetic art" did nothing to address, but the reality of these things are facts.

The accumulation of the dangerous fossil fuel wastes, included but not limited to carbon dioxide, is taking place at the fastest rate ever observed. The use of fossil fuels is increasing.

So if trashing wilderness for a lame affectation about bad taste in art is the point, maybe in the minds of some people, clearly not me, that's "useful," but if the issue is sustaining the world - my point, what I care about - this soon to rot crap is useless, particularly at a cost of trillions of dollars on a planet where two billion people lack clean water.

Now, let's get serious. In 2022, the single nuclear plant in California, produced more energy than more than 1500 square kilometers of industrial parks for wind turbines.

Specifically in 2022 one nuclear power plant, with a 12 acre footprint, Diablo Canyon produced 17,627 GWh - note that a GWh is a unit of energy, and all the wind turbines over the State of California, over 1500 square miles of trashed wilderness, produced 13,938 GWh.

California Generation and Capacity, 2011 to 2022.

Why did we not protect the wilderness in California and build another nuclear plant to produce this much energy, and do so reliably without back up with dangerous fossil fuels?

Because there are badly educated radiation paranoids who insist that nuclear energy is "too dangerous" without questioning whether climate change, and the deaths of close to 70 mllion people in the last ten years from air pollution - never mind people now being killed by extreme heat - is "too dangerous."

Now if you ask one of these people to show that in the 70 year history of commercial nuclear power, exposure to leaked radiation has killed as many people as will die today, tomorrow, every day next month, every day next year, every day for the last ten years, about 19,000 people every damned day, they can't do it.

They just chant.

This faith based chanting reactionary so called "renewable energy" cult has got to go. We have a world to save.

Look, all the stupid chanting in the world, all the Trumpian scale lies, will not make so called "renewable energy" useful, if the issue is environment, human lives, and climate change.

If the issue is furthering bad taste in art, that's one thing.

As it happens my one of my sons is an artist, and believe me, I know something about taste in art, including bad taste.

As for antinukes trying to tell me they give a shit about the world, about humanity, about the environment, about sustainability, about energy justice, I rather find them as believable as Donald Trump saying he's about making American "great."

It's bull. Useless bull. Deadly bull.

Have a nice evening.

[Blues Heron]

17. How can you say its useless if they are kicking out watt-hours?

Last edited Thu Aug 3, 2023, 07:18 PM - Edit history (1)

that doesnt make any sense whatsoever. I get that you have a burning hatred of windmills, but those windmill watt-hours would have been gas or coal watt-hours.

The new General Electric windmills can power a house for two days with each sweep of the blades. It doesn’t make any sense to leave that energy on the table without harvesting it. It’s free, and carbon free. There is no wind bill to pay - the energy is there for the taking. Not doing so would be quite insane.

[NNadir]

6. That's an incredible nonsense statement.

What the war showed that antinuke mentality, notably thar in the coal dependent hellhole Germany, funded horrid dictators to maintain access to fossil fuels. Specifically it kept mon8flowing to Putin.

More people vastly more - have been killed by dangerous fossil fuel weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine than have died from all the radiation leaks from nuclear power plants in the 70 year history of commercial nuclear power worldwide.

The fear of radiation, an irrational fear driven by ignorance and marketing, has killed more people than radiation itself.

Ukraine doesn't give a rat's ass about the antinuke fetish that if they can imagine with their poor educations, that someone, somewhere dies from radiation, then it is perfectly OK for tens of millions of people to die every decade from air pollution. Ukraine has announced its intention, after the war to build nine AP1000 reactors to totally eliminate dependence on Russian gas and coal.

[Blues Heron]

9. Do you think evacuating Pripyat permanently was a mistake?

Were the residents just being radiation paranoids?

[NowsTheTime]

3. in the words of Jack Benny.."NOW CUT THAT OUT!".....(and it's where we put most of our eggs)

(nobody has given much consideration to the financial effects of climate change....like getting house insurance and now solar energy
equipment insurance, cost and scarcity of food and water) but I'm hoping the money thing will finally get the attention of repubs
cause they care about $

[rickford66]

5. Corning Glass will have to "invent" a solution.

I've heard about bullet-proof glass.

[intheflow]

10. Fuck BP not investing in renewables in the Gulf Coast region!

They're still drilling for oil in the Gulf:

https://www.bp.com/en_us/united-states/home/news/press-releases/bp-starts-oil-production-at-argos-platform-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html

[Donkees]

15. Damage to the face of the modules indicates the 'hail stow' tracker was not activated ...

The Scottsbluff project features more than 14,000 JA Solar 380W modules, Brown said, and utilizes a single-axis tracker system with hail stow capabilities from Array Technologies. While it's unclear if the asset's hail stow program was activated during the weather event, damage to the face of the modules indicates it was not.

Hail has become a prominent challenge for developers and asset owners, as modules move toward larger formats with thinner glass.

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%.

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/solar-farm-pelted-by-giant-hail-as-severe-storm-ripped-through-nebraska/#gref

Scottsbluff, Nebraska Community Solar Project Fly Over

3 years ago

Scottsbluff, Nebraska's 5.2 MW Community Solar project is a part of NPPD's Sunwise program. The solar array has over 14,000 solar panels, which are installed on trackers that will follow the sun throughout the day. GenPro Energy Solutions was Co-Developer and EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) on the Scottsbluff, NE Community solar project.

[hatrack]

18. I wondered if that was an option . . .

.

[Donkees]

19. Severe winds might have kept them from activating the hail stow ...

https://arraytechinc.com/hail-and-wind-are-a-package-deal/

Surprisingly, solar trackers that depend on active stow are not designed to handle sustained wind gusts at high angles. During hail events, trackers that rely on active stow face real risk of wind damage if they attempt to position modules at high angles.

Wind and hail present a dual-threat challenge. Solar trackers that place modules in a flat orientation during severe wind events paradoxically then place modules at highest risk of damage from large hail. Given that NOAA recorded over 4,600 severe weather events in 2018 with hail and winds over 58 MPH, an inflexible, uncoordinated response to a combined wind and hail event will inevitably increase risk.

Mitigating risk for hail while increasing risk for wind is an equation for eventual disaster.

[NowsTheTime]

20. Ahhhh!!........There was already a solution, but for some reason it didn't work...I feel better!

[OKIsItJustMe]

21. This is something which has haunted my imagination for years

And now it's real. Great!