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submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by ikidd@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Looks expensive. The grey ones are the broken ones.

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[-] JaymesRS@literature.cafe 291 points 7 months ago

Has anyone investigated the consequences of all the sunlight that’s leaked into the environment because of this disaster? What sort of clean up are we looking at and how long will it take?

[-] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 111 points 7 months ago

The effect on the local goth population will be devastating.

[-] paridoxical@lemmy.world 55 points 7 months ago

It's okay, this happened outside the environment.

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[-] prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 53 points 7 months ago

The problem when photon containment breaks like this is that we can never be 100% sure which photons were SUPPOSED to be there, and which ones leaked out. We'll need a dedicated team of particle physicists with very small tweazers to have any hope of sorting out this mess.

[-] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

Unfortunately the VST (Very Small Tweezers) project is running a decade behind schedule and needs an additional $10 billion in funding, but the older RSP (Rather Small Pliers) project could be retrofitted to support photon retrieval with a bit of light-absorbent paint.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago

We've began the process of capturing all the seabirds exposed to the sunlight and scrubbing it off them with a combination of lye and baking soda.

They seem unhappy about this process.

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[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 154 points 7 months ago

I feel like this is one of those things that definitely has to have happened before now; after all, grid-scale solar isn't something we've just started doing in the last two or three years, we've been at it for at least 15 that I know of. And hail isn't exactly a new phenomenon in TX. So I wonder why we're hearing about it like it's news. Is this fossil fuel funded bad press? Did they skimp on protection they shouldn't have?

[-] Empricorn@feddit.nl 65 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's Texas. So without doing any research, it's *probably all of the above and also there's corruption in there somewhere...

[-] JoMomma@lemm.ee 16 points 7 months ago

Idk, here in the PNW I had only seen hail once in the past 10 years, this spring it has hailed over a dozen times... climate change is wild

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[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 101 points 7 months ago

My 200W panel just got slammed camping over xmas and not a spot of damage on it—its made to have some sort of protection from hail strikes. Meanwhile the 4×4 got smashed windows and dents all over.

[-] bibliotectress@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

Wow that's a huge hail ball! I get excited when they're marble-sized.

[-] labsin@sh.itjust.works 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It might have cracks in the silicon crystal that might burn in over time.

But yeah, impressive that it could take this big of hail balls without braking the glass.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 82 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Placing hardware cloth or similar over the panels with a couple inches of stand-off should prevent most any damage from even lege hail. It will probably reduce sunlight by a few percent across the entire field, but considering the storms Texas gets it would likely be worth it in the long run instead of having most of an entire farm wrecked.

But then Texas isn’t big on protecting their power sources from environmental impacts, are they.

[-] Zomg@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago

Nah, how else will Republicans cry that solar energy is bad, and that we need coal and oil?

[-] repungnant_canary@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

How strong that cloth and attachment would need to be to survive gusts from a storm that's capable of generating such big hail?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Hardware cloth is metal mesh, so any wind strong enough to remove it would have long since destroyed the panel it was attached to thanks to the surface area of the panel. The standoffs would probably need to be “L” tabs or similar arranged in a grid across the face of the panel. Heck, just erecting a screen over the entire field would probably be better and cheaper than doing individual panels, but a field-size cover would probably end up with needing higher strength posts to mount it because of the greater drag over surface area. That said, I’m not an engineer, so the most efficient and effective method of protection is going to have to come from someone with more knowledge than my guesswork.

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[-] blarth@thelemmy.club 10 points 7 months ago

Why are we so dumb? Just put a large rolling cover over solar fields. Truck beds have this “technology”.

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[-] 1984@lemmy.today 59 points 7 months ago

Should have put them underground.

[-] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

Why didn't they just cover them with metal sheets to protect them from the hail? Are they stupid?

[-] Drigo@sopuli.xyz 12 points 7 months ago

Yeah why don't they just build a roof over them?

[-] eleitl@lemmy.ml 28 points 7 months ago
[-] Siethron@lemmy.world 55 points 7 months ago

Armor Class,

It is very hard to hit

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 14 points 7 months ago

Hailstorm was consistently rolling them nat 20s, need to check for loaded dice

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[-] BigLgame@lemy.lol 18 points 7 months ago

All the people arguing for nuclear, are you sure Texas is best place to handle that? I'm fine with nuclear as long as they have a reasonable plan to store the waste, but Texas is horrible at managing anything energy related.

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[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 12 points 7 months ago

Don’t tread on my private infrastructure!!

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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
363 points (94.6% liked)

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