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One problem with Solar I hadn't really thought about is how robust they are (not) in storms. The picture at the top of this article shows how a grid on Peurto R
by rb808 9y ago
One problem with Solar I hadn't really thought about is how robust they are (not) in storms. The picture at the top of this article shows how a grid on Peurto Rico was destroyed.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/should-a-devastated-caribbean-leap-forward-to-renewable-power-and-microgrids https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid...
links to: http://www.theweatherjunkies.com/single-post/2017/09/28/Puerto-Rican-Solar-Farms-Heavily-Damaged-By-Hurricane-Maria http://www.theweatherjunkies.com/single-post/2017/09/28/Puer... which shows some that are built more robustly.
Looking around there are lots of panels with hail damage and catching fire etc, its not as simple as I thought!
- rottyguy 9y agoI too am curious how this is superior to electrical lines in a storm. The best I could come up was that the grid is now more distributed such that storms could take out some but not all systems. I suspect getting certain critical assets back online would necessarily be easier since additional nodes aren't necessary to interlink power from a central system. Can anyone provide other benefits?
- jdietrich 9y agoThere's an element of intrinsic redundancy. Most solar panels can withstand considerable impact damage with only a modest loss of efficiency. The loss of a panel doesn't knock out the whole array. On a community level, losing power in some fraction of your buildings is much less disastrous than being knocked off the grid.