The US government needs to stop choosing winners and losers in businesses. Take the government funding of a heavily subsidized solar farm last June in an area with “some of the highest frequencies of hailstorms in the country.”
The solar panels at a 5.2-megawatt solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were mostly destroyed by baseball-sized hail moving at 100 to 150 miles per hour at the end of June.
The solar panels were supposed to be hail-proof, but the hailstones were very large. High winds accompanying the hail storm possibly drove the hailstones into the Scottsbluff panels, exceeding their hail resistance limits.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the area of the country that runs from eastern Wyoming directly into Scottsbluff is ranked as the highest category for hail risk in America.
MOST HAILSTORMS IN THE NATION
The area has some of the highest frequencies of hailstorms in the country, averaging seven to nine hailstorms per year, including hail stones from pea-sized to baseball-sized. Yet, the area is still building solar plants that could be affected, as the Scottsbluff solar farm was driven by federal and state incentives to deploy renewable energy.
It’s another Solyndra. Leave it to federal and state to approve a solar farm in an area with the most hailstorms.
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