A powerful wind storm, Darragh, demolished a solar farm in England. But if you close your eyes, click your heels together three times and say there’s no power like wind, apparently the tempest goes away, the panels reassemble and everything placidly settles back down as it was before. At any rate so says Euronews.green under the heading “Are solar farms destroyed during storms? Experts debunk reports that panels can’t handle the wind”. Experts no less. So never mind those photos of what happens when the panels can’t handle the wind.

The piece does quote the Daily Mail that the Porth Wen farm was “torn to pieces” and some panels were “torn to shreds”. But it doesn’t link to the story. Instead it continues that:

“A climate denial outlet took this framing a step further in a piece entitled ‘Storm Darragh Decimates The UK’s Largest Solar Panel Farm’.”

Boo denial outfits. Yay experts. It doesn’t link to that item either in case readers were curious. (Google didn’t cough it up either.)

In case you are curious, the Daily Mail item is here and does indeed report that:

“Hundreds of panels at the giant 190-acre Porth Wen solar farm in Anglesey, North Wales - only built two years ago - were blown off their mountings, some ripped to shreds. The site at Llanbadrig, in the north of the island which is owned by French power firm EDF Energy and powers up to 9,500 households, now needs significant repairs.”

But who are you going to believe, them or your own eyes? No, wait, sorry, neither. See, Euronews.green assures us that:

“Storm Darragh was exceptionally powerful, points out Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK. ‘It is just the kind of extreme weather that scientists have been telling us to expect more of for decades – and renewables such as solar farms are a vital part in the fight against a warming world.’”

Except for the bit where they get demolished on their way into the ring, because the extreme weather that will hit when climate change gets really bad has already hit because of the ghosts of climate change past, present and future all blurring together into a nightmare.

Also, it rebounds:

“‘Although the damage to the Porth Wen site looks substantial, one of the great advantages of solar farms is that they are quick to install and hence repair,’ he [Hewett] adds.”

Which if true is a good thing because this incident is not an isolated one. And they’re also serious because they scatter toxic shards… no, wait. Everything is under control because:

“Over in the US, solar farm operators have even fiercer winds to contend with. In October, solar panels were among the many infrastructure casualties of Hurricane Milton, for example. But suppliers have been working on solutions for years. In 2020, the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a report offering guidance on wind-hardening solar power systems. It outlines 13 strategies to bolster a site’s ability to withstand higher wind speeds, with a particular focus on bolts.”

Bolts. Wow. Talk about cutting edge technology. No wonder they’ve been working on it for years. Mind you, we aren’t reassured that if you think this one was bad, wait till you see an American storm like the one that blew Dorothy to Oz. It almost sounds like confirmation of skeptics’ worries.

Another point worth considering is their massive footprint, which disfigures the landscape visually as well as ecologically, and increases the target for bad weather from wind to hail as it increases an economy’s vulnerability to the deficiencies of this energy source. (Not least because it requires natural-gas backup systems or some other kind because of its tendency to produce power at the wrong time or not at all.)

Now at this point you’re probably wondering when the experts will blow in and confirm what this totally disinterested industry spokesman is saying. Uh, turns out he’s the experts who say.