Thursday Noticeboard

Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by The Almighty’s divine climate justice – for He bore witness to a solar farm that displeased Him, and righteously struck down upon it with great vengeance and furious anger.

That's the Pulp Fiction version, anyway (language warning). In more basic terms, the joint got smashed up by a hail storm:

BREAKING: Hail storm in Damon texas on 3/24/24 destroys 1,000’s of acres of solar farms.

Who pays to fix this green energy? @StateFarm? @FarmBureau? @Allstate?

Or you the taxpayer? pic.twitter.com/GpNSaopObZ

— Corey Thompson (@Roughneck2real) March 25, 2024

Other solar arrangements also felt God’s holy-haily wrath:

An onslaught of hail in southeastern Texas that destroyed large portions of a massive solar farm is highlighting the perils of trading traditional power sources for vulnerable "green" alternatives and sparking concern about the potential for chemical leaks from the broken panels.

Aerial footage captured the significant damage suffered by the Fighting Jays Solar farm in Fort Bend County, Texas.

The March 15 storm shattered hundreds of panels and prompted a nearby resident to question if the solar panels were leaking chemicals such as cadmium telluride, which is linked to serious health risks in humans.

The solar farm’s parent company reports that the “silicon-based panels contain no cadmium telluride and we have identified no risk to the local community or the environment".

So at least there’s that.

But there’s also the fact that superior energy sources tend to coast through routine bad weather. Hail never took out a reactor.

(Via Candidapax)

UPDATE. Roll out those Chinese smash-panels, because Albo’s doubling down on solar:

Speaking in the NSW Hunter, the Prime Minister said the government’s newly announced $1bn investment in solar panels manufacturing will be just a “sneak peak” in what is to come over the next year.

Please stop.

The Prime Minister described the solar announcement as one of the most significant investments in the government’s term.

Mr Albanese said the funding would help Australia become a “renewable energy superpower” ...

Sure. And then a hail storm happens.