Extreme Hail Storms Are Wrecking Solar Farms—but Defending Them May Be Easier Than It Seems

This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

When a baseball-sized hailstone slams into a solar panel at more than 90 mph, the result is not pretty.

We saw this in March, when a hailstorm decimated parts of the 350-MW Fighting Jays solar project in southeast Texas. Images circulated on social media and in news coverage of thousands of panels pockmarked with white circles of broken glass. Right-wing outlets were eager to amplify what they saw as evidence of the unreliability of solar power.

The reality about hail and solar panels is more complicated, and not so grim.

Solar

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