In the contest between tornados and solar power farms, tornados remain undefeated. From Indiana’s WSBT-22,
Severe storms, suspected tornado damages solar farm, structures in Jasper County.
The station reports from the delightfully named Wheatfield, IN,
A solar farm was hit hard just a few miles east from here. A field just east of State Road 10 is filled with scraps of metal and dented solar panels.
Tuesday night’s tornado hit the town of Wheatfield and badly damaged the solar farm there.
A screenshot from the Channel 22 report,
Advocates for solar power boast of 25 to 30 years of life for a panel. Those figures are estimates based on laboratory conditions, not outdoors in a Midwestern tornado alley. Factory warranties do not cover tornado or hail damage to components.
ABC-57 reprinted a statement from the local utility, Northern Indiana Public Service (NIPSCO) on the storm. From the statement,
NIPSCO became aware of damage to its Dunns Bridge I and Dunns Bridge II solar facilities in Starke and Jasper counties. Our team was tracking the storm in real time and moved in to assess conditions and respond as soon as it was safe to do so. Debris from the damage could have been displaced, and we are working to safely secure the area, assess the damage and proactively communicate with the community.
In other words, beware of flying solar panels in a tornado. ABC-57 reports,
When asked where the solar farms supply power to, a spokesperson for NIPSCO stated, “Our generation assets feed into the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) system and it’s dispatched through them.”
Yes, MISO is the same regional power grid that serves Minnesota.
According to the project developer, the Dunns Bridge project is massive and includes “up to 700 megawatts of clean, solar energy with 75 megawatts of battery energy storage.”
Not anymore.
