A devastating hailstorm wreaked havoc on a 5.2-megawatt solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, at the end of June 2023, according to the Institute for Energy Research. It destroyed most of its panels with baseball-sized hail moving at speeds of 100 to 150 miles per hour.
Despite being designed to withstand hail, the large hailstones exceeded the panels’ resistance limits, possibly exacerbated by high winds accompanying the storm.
The hailstorm, part of a massive super-cell thunderhead, swept through eastern Wyoming and into Nebraska, inflicting severe damage on the multimillion-dollar solar farm, which boasted over 14,000 panels operational since 2019. The system’s expected 25-year lifespan was drastically shortened to less than 4 years, leaving authorities grappling with the cleanup of the resultant toxic mess.
The incident raises concern about the reliability of weather-vulnerable power plants and the duration required to remediate the environmental aftermath.
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Cost of insurance now prohibiting solar
In a recent report titled “Hail No! Defending Solar from nature’s cold assault,” GCube Insurance highlights the challenge posed by hailstorms in the solar industry.
Data collected over five years reveals hail-related claims averaging $58.4 million per claim, constituting 54.21% of the total solar loss claim costs. Factors such as inadequate risk models and fragile glass panels exacerbate vulnerability.
According to the report, this alarming trend is creating a significant gap between insurance requirements for solar projects and available market coverage, leading to project delays and cancellations.
The report highlights that solar manufacturers’ initiatives to lower the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) have resulted in the adoption of larger, thinner, and more delicate glass panels. Additionally, selecting sites with higher hail risk increases financial vulnerabilities for future projects.
Climate change to blame!
Climate change fanatics have been quick to attribute record-breaking hail incidents to the effects of climate change.
But even if a warmer climate will make more hail in some places, so what? Don’t build solar panels there. Protecting them with tilting motors and shields makes them more expensive and is more stuff to go wrong. And some scientists also admit the frailty of their knowledge. Who knew that?
According to an article by Scientific American, Italy witnessed a remarkable meteorological phenomenon as a colossal 7.6-inch hailstone, more than double the size of a softball, descended from stormy skies, breaking the European record just five days after a 6.2-inch hailstone set a new benchmark. According to the National Weather Service, this latest hailstone also approached the world record set in South Dakota in 2010 by a hailstone eight inches in diameter—almost as large as a bowling ball.
Contrary to expectations, experts (!) suggest that warming temperatures may increase the likelihood of hailstorms in certain areas, with more potentially damaging hail, anticipated even as the global surface warms.
Dr. Katja Friedrich, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, highlights the complexities of climate change effects on hail production, attributing them to factors like strong updrafts, atmospheric instability, and abundant moisture.
The Bible says,
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever.
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Hail mortality rate
Hailstorms are nothing new. In 1888, Moradabad, India, was struck by a deadly hailstorm, claiming the lives of approximately 246 people.
Reports described hailstones as large as ‘goose eggs and oranges’ and even cricket balls.
The event, one of the deadliest in history, caused widespread devastation and loss of lives. Historical accounts from the London Times and Nature, as well as A.W. Greely’s book “American Weather,” provide detailed narratives of the calamity.
John Eliot, a key figure in India’s Meteorological department, documented the severity of the storm. Although Eliot’s official weather records did not include specific death tolls, subsequent accounts by meteorologists supported the recorded deaths.
Mankind’s attempts to model the weather, let alone control it, are futile and arrogant. It will be far better to put the energies of mankind into measures to increase prosperity and mitigate the effects of adverse weather.
The Bible says,
Job 36:29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
How does hail form?
According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, hailstones form when raindrops are lifted into cold regions of the atmosphere by thunderstorm updrafts, where they freeze and grow by colliding with liquid water drops. The freezing speed determines if the ice is cloudy or clear.
Hail falls when the updraft can’t support its weight. Hailstones may have layers of clear and cloudy ice due to temperature and water content changes in the storm.
Winds inside the storm contribute to these variations. Hailstones don’t grow from cycling up and down; they need liquid water to grow, absent at high altitudes where temperatures drop below -40°F.
‘Although Florida has the most thunderstorms, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming usually have the most hailstorms. The area where these three states meet–“hail alley”–averages seven to nine hail days per year. Other parts of the world that have damaging hailstorms include China, Russia, India and northern Italy.’
Hail formed one of the plagues of Egypt:
Exo 9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Signs of the Times
The ancients saw things like hail as the judgment of God:
Psalm 18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
In the book of Revelation, hail is described as a plague of judgment:
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
The Lord Jesus knows all about weather forecasting, but he challenges us to see the signs of the times: The Bible says,
Matthew 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
When we do that, we see that climate hysteria is part of a command-and-control agenda driven by a God-hating rebellious elite.
Read our related articles here:
King Charles’s cult of Climate Change hits the buffers →
Folly and Oppression: Closing the Port Talbot Blast Furnaces →
King Charles preaches Net Zero at COP28 →
UN exploiting children for political gain →
Read and pray
READ: Exo 9:24-25; Deut 6:6-7; Job 38:4,22,33, Psa 18:13, 78:47; Isa 28:17; Matt 16:3; Rev 16:21.
PRAY: for the repeal of the Climate Change Act and an end to Net Zero oppression and stupidity.
Pray for there to be God-fearing leaders in our country.
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