Solar Farm vs Hurricane Milton - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 12:23:07 am
content: Wow, solar farm destroyed by hurricane Milton.I'm suprised at the relatively clean path of destruction right through it, with ones either side looking possibly undamaged?https://news.duke-energy.com/file/dji-20241010111433-0006-w?action=

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 05:59:23 am
content: I've seen photos of tornado growing out of the hurricane. I imagine that would do this.Or maybe the wind dragged something through the solar power plant.

author: ahbushnell
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2024, 12:11:57 am
content: That was my thought also.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2024, 01:11:35 am
content: There were more than 50 tornadoes spawned by the approaching hurricane, and these have been blamed for much of the non-flooding damage. Here in the US where tornadoes are relatively common it is widely joked that trailer parks (communities of lightly constructed homes which at least initially were on a trailer chassis) attract tornadoes because of how thoroughly they are destroyed. Apparently solar farms have a similar property.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:05:08 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 14, 2024, 12:23:07 amThat was very definitely damaged by a tornado and not by the hurricane itself. I don't know if they've decided what the strength or the wind speed of that particular tornado was but there were twoconfirmedEF-3 tornadoes in Florida on that day. In total there were 126 tornado warnings issued in Florida on that day and the US Weather Service is still looking to see if all of those were in fact real tornadoes and if they touched down, and if so, then what strength they were, how wide they were and how far they tracked on the ground.I'm going to stick my neck and say that I think that most, if not all, of the warnings were real tornadoes. They've just started using a new type radar that actually looks for debris clouds and not just two nearby opposing winds so I think that the new warnings are much more accurate when it comes to spotting actual tornadoes instead of justpotentialweather conditions for them.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:10:49 am
content: I just found this on FoxWeather channel and they said that the weather service has surveyed the damage and have said that it was an EF-2 tornado.https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/drone-video-florida-tornado-solar-farm-miltonWikipedia says that an EF-2 has winds of between 111 and 135 MPH.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:20:08 am
content: so thats where they got the glass to build emerald city.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 02:05:06 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 14, 2024, 12:23:07 amIt is impressive in a negative way to see that amount of damage. Solar panels are quite strong so the destructive force must have been huge.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 02:33:10 pm
content: A narrow destruction path is a clear sign of tornado damage.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 02:52:37 pm
content: Compared to a power station in a building, that site is probably still producing something, and can be restored to full capacity in a few weeks, and still produce at an intermediate level throughout repairs.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:17:35 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on October 18, 2024, 02:52:37 pmI was just wondering how well they configured their redundancy, and whether the whole place was taken out due to SPOFs.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:25:06 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on October 18, 2024, 02:52:37 pmI doubt it. If I know anything about the USA, they will shut down the entire farm for fear of fire. And they will write it off and claim damages for insurance.Probably the entire thing, including good, working, undamaged panels are going to the landfill.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:29:02 pm
content: Quote from: tszaboo on October 18, 2024, 04:25:06 pmQuestion: how much do you know about the USA? How would you proceed to repair serious storm damage of a solar farm?

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 04:58:33 pm
content: As others have said, indeed it has the signature of a tornado.I could believe the plant could be put to work in some partial way if the path of destruction was cleanly straight. Being diagonal, I suspect that interconnects and redundancies would be sectorized but not in a diagonal pattern. Not being an expert in these installations, I could be absolutely wrong.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 08:15:33 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on October 18, 2024, 04:29:02 pmThat could be complicated depending on the age of the solar farm. Panel sizes do change so if unlucky, new panels won't fit on the existing rails (if these survived) and/or between existing panels. But even with new rails, the size will be different. Newer panels also output more power (due to increased size & efficiency) which might not be compatible with the existing inverters. GIven that about 50% of the area of the solar farm is damaged, it might make more sense to replace the whole thing instead of patching it up at the damaged spots.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2024, 09:55:12 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on October 18, 2024, 08:15:33 pmEven with the same panel type, I would imagine that panel ageing means you may not want to mix old and new panels on a series string. So probably best to consolidate all the surviving panels into blocks and make new blocks with all new ones.if it's an old installation, it may make more sense to replace all of them as new panels are cheaper and more efficient, and the surviving old ones would still have some resale value.