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The Future of Solar Energy

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The Future of Solar Energy considers only the two widely recognized classes of technologies for converting solar energy into electricity — photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP), sometimes called solar thermal) — in their current and plausible future forms. Because energy supply facilities typically last several decades, technologies in these classes will dominate solar-powered generation between now and 2050, and we do not attempt to look beyond that date. In contrast to some earlier Future of studies, we also present no forecasts — for two reasons. First, expanding the solar industry dramatically from its relatively tiny current scale may produce changes we do not pretend to be able to foresee today. Second, we recognize that future solar deployment will depend heavily on uncertain future market conditions and public policies — including but not limited to policies aimed at mitigating global climate change.

As in other studies in this series, our primary aim is to inform decision-makers in the developed world, particularly the United States. We concentrate on the use of grid-connected solar-powered generators to replace conventional sources of electricity. For the more than one billion people in the developing world who lack access to a reliable electric grid, the cost of small-scale PV generation is often outweighed by the very high value of access to electricity for lighting and charging mobile telephone and radio batteries. In addition, in some developing nations it may be economic to use solar generation to reduce reliance on imported oil, particularly if that oil must be moved by truck to remote generator sites. A companion working paper discusses both these valuable roles for solar energy in the developing world.

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Shaping photovoltaic array output to align with changing wholesale electricity price profiles

December 2019

Spatial and temporal variation in the value of solar power across United States electricity markets

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• NEWS FEATURE
• 29 November 2023

A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy?

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Rooftop solar panels in China. Tandem cells could boost power density in crowded urban areas. Credit: VCG/Getty

On the outskirts of Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, nestled among car dealerships and hardware shops, sits a two-storey factory stuffed with solar-power secrets. It’s here where UK firm Oxford PV is producing commercial solar cells using perovskites: cheap, abundant photovoltaic (PV) materials that some have hailed as the future of green energy. Surrounded by unkempt grass and a weed-strewn car park, the factory is a modest cradle for such a potentially transformative technology, but the firm’s chief technology officer Chris Case is clearly in love with the place. “This is the culmination of my dreams,” he says.

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Researchers find benefits of solar photovoltaics outweigh costs

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Over the past decade, the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays has fallen rapidly. But at the same time, the value of PV power has declined in areas that have installed significant PV generating capacity. Operators of utility-scale PV systems have seen electricity prices drop as more PV generators come online. Over the same time period, many coal-fired power plants were required to install emissions-control systems, resulting in declines in air pollution nationally and regionally. The result has been improved public health — but also a decrease in the potential health benefits from offsetting coal generation with PV generation.

Given those competing trends, do the benefits of PV generation outweigh the costs? Answering that question requires balancing the up-front capital costs against the lifetime benefits of a PV system. Determining the former is fairly straightforward. But assessing the latter is challenging because the benefits differ across time and place. “The differences aren’t just due to variation in the amount of sunlight a given location receives throughout the year,” says  Patrick R. Brown PhD ’16, a postdoc at the MIT Energy Initiative. “They’re also due to variability in electricity prices and pollutant emissions.”

The drop in the price paid for utility-scale PV power stems in part from how electricity is bought and sold on wholesale electricity markets. On the “day-ahead” market, generators and customers submit bids specifying how much they’ll sell or buy at various price levels at a given hour on the following day. The lowest-cost generators are chosen first. Since the variable operating cost of PV systems is near zero, they’re almost always chosen, taking the place of the most expensive generator then in the lineup. The price paid to every selected generator is set by the highest-cost operator on the system, so as more PV power comes on, more high-cost generators come off, and the price drops for everyone. As a result, in the middle of the day, when solar is generating the most, prices paid to electricity generators are at their lowest.

Brown notes that some generators may even bid negative prices. “They’re effectively paying consumers to take their power to ensure that they are dispatched,” he explains. For example, inflexible coal and nuclear plants may bid negative prices to avoid frequent shutdown and startup events that would result in extra fuel and maintenance costs. Renewable generators may also bid negative prices to obtain larger subsidies that are rewarded based on production. 

Health benefits also differ over time and place. The health effects of deploying PV power are greater in a heavily populated area that relies on coal power than in a less-populated region that has access to plenty of clean hydropower or wind. And the local health benefits of PV power can be higher when there’s congestion on transmission lines that leaves a region stuck with whatever high-polluting sources are available nearby. The social costs of air pollution are largely “externalized,” that is, they are mostly unaccounted for in electricity markets. But they can be quantified using statistical methods, so health benefits resulting from reduced emissions can be incorporated when assessing the cost-competitiveness of PV generation.

The contribution of fossil-fueled generators to climate change is another externality not accounted for by most electricity markets. Some U.S. markets, particularly in California and the Northeast, have implemented cap-and-trade programs, but the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) prices in those markets are much lower than estimates of the social cost of CO 2 , and other markets don’t price carbon at all. A full accounting of the benefits of PV power thus requires determining the CO 2  emissions displaced by PV generation and then multiplying that value by a uniform carbon price representing the damage that those emissions would have caused.

Calculating PV costs and benefits

To examine the changing value of solar power, Brown and his colleague Francis M. O’Sullivan, the senior vice president of strategy at Ørsted Onshore North America and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, developed a methodology to assess the costs and benefits of PV power across the U.S. power grid annually from 2010 to 2017. 

The researchers focused on six “independent system operators” (ISOs) in California, Texas, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, New York, and New England. Each ISO sets electricity prices at hundreds of “pricing nodes” along the transmission network in their region. The researchers performed analyses at more than 10,000 of those pricing nodes.

For each node, they simulated the operation of a utility-scale PV array that tilts to follow the sun throughout the day. They calculated how much electricity it would generate and the benefits that each kilowatt would provide, factoring in energy and “capacity” revenues as well as avoided health and climate change costs associated with the displacement of fossil fuel emissions. (Capacity revenues are paid to generators for being available to deliver electricity at times of peak demand.) They focused on emissions of CO 2 , which contributes to climate change, and of nitrogen oxides (NO x ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and particulate matter called PM 2.5 — fine particles that can cause serious health problems and can be emitted or formed in the atmosphere from NO x  and SO 2 .

The results of the analysis showed that the wholesale energy value of PV generation varied significantly from place to place, even within the region of a given ISO. For example, in New York City and Long Island, where population density is high and adding transmission lines is difficult, the market value of solar was at times 50 percent higher than across the state as a whole. 

The public health benefits associated with SO 2 , NO x , and PM 2.5  emissions reductions declined over the study period but were still substantial in 2017. Monetizing the health benefits of PV generation in 2017 would add almost 75 percent to energy revenues in the Midwest and New York and fully 100 percent in the Mid-Atlantic, thanks to the large amount of coal generation in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic and the high population density on the Eastern Seaboard. 

Based on the calculated energy and capacity revenues and health and climate benefits for 2017, the researchers asked: Given that combination of private and public benefits, what upfront PV system cost would be needed to make the PV installation “break even” over its lifetime, assuming that grid conditions in that year persist for the life of the installation? In other words, says Brown, “At what capital cost would an investment in a PV system be paid back in benefits over the lifetime of the array?” 

Assuming 2017 values for energy and capacity market revenues alone, an unsubsidized PV investment at 2017 costs doesn’t break even. Add in the health benefit, and PV breaks even at 30 percent of the pricing nodes modeled. Assuming a carbon price of $50 per ton, the investment breaks even at about 70 percent of the nodes, and with a carbon price of $100 per ton (which is still less than the price estimated to be needed to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius), PV breaks even at all of the modeled nodes. 

That wasn’t the case just two years earlier: At 2015 PV costs, PV would only have broken even in 2017 at about 65 percent of the nodes counting market revenues, health benefits, and a $100 per ton carbon price. “Since 2010, solar has gone from one of the most expensive sources of electricity to one of the cheapest, and it now breaks even across the majority of the U.S. when considering the full slate of values that it provides,” says Brown. 

Based on their findings, the researchers conclude that the decline in PV costs over the studied period outpaced the decline in value, such that in 2017 the market, health, and climate benefits outweighed the cost of PV systems at the majority of locations modeled. “So the amount of solar that’s competitive is still increasing year by year,” says Brown. 

The findings underscore the importance of considering health and climate benefits as well as market revenues. “If you’re going to add another megawatt of PV power, it’s best to put it where it’ll make the most difference, not only in terms of revenues but also health and CO 2 ,” says Brown. 

Unfortunately, today’s policies don’t reward that behavior. Some states do provide renewable energy subsidies for solar investments, but they reward generation equally everywhere. Yet in states such as New York, the public health benefits would have been far higher at some nodes than at others. State-level or regional reward mechanisms could be tailored to reflect such variation in node-to-node benefits of PV generation, providing incentives for installing PV systems where they’ll be most valuable. Providing time-varying price signals (including the cost of emissions) not only to utility-scale generators, but also to residential and commercial electricity generators and customers, would similarly guide PV investment to areas where it provides the most benefit. 

Time-shifting PV output to maximize revenues 

The analysis provides some guidance that might help would-be PV installers maximize their revenues. For example, it identifies certain “hot spots” where PV generation is especially valuable. At some high-electricity-demand nodes along the East Coast, for instance, persistent grid congestion has meant that the projected revenue of a PV generator has been high for more than a decade. The analysis also shows that the sunniest site may not always be the most profitable choice. A PV system in Texas would generate about 20 percent more power than one in the Northeast, yet energy revenues were greater at nodes in the Northeast than in Texas in some of the years analyzed. 

To help potential PV owners maximize their future revenues, Brown and O’Sullivan performed a follow-on study focusing on ways to shift the output of PV arrays to align with times of higher prices on the wholesale market. For this analysis, they considered the value of solar on the day-ahead market and also on the “real-time market,” which dispatches generators to correct for discrepancies between supply and demand. They explored three options for shaping the output of PV generators, with a focus on the California real-time market in 2017, when high PV penetration led to a large reduction in midday prices compared to morning and evening prices.

• Curtailing output when prices are negative: During negative-price hours, a PV operator can simply turn off generation. In California in 2017, curtailment would have increased revenues by 9 percent on the real-time market compared to “must-run” operation.
• Changing the orientation of “fixed-tilt” (stationary) solar panels: The general rule of thumb in the Northern Hemisphere is to orient solar panels toward the south, maximizing production over the year. But peak production then occurs at about noon, when electricity prices in markets with high solar penetration are at their lowest. Pointing panels toward the west moves generation further into the afternoon. On the California real-time market in 2017, optimizing the orientation would have increased revenues by 13 percent, or 20 percent in conjunction with curtailment.
• Using 1-axis tracking: For larger utility-scale installations, solar panels are frequently installed on automatic solar trackers, rotating throughout the day from east in the morning to west in the evening. Using such 1-axis tracking on the California system in 2017 would have increased revenues by 32 percent over a fixed-tilt installation, and using tracking plus curtailment would have increased revenues by 42 percent.

The researchers were surprised to see how much the optimal orientation changed in California over the period of their study. “In 2010, the best orientation for a fixed array was about 10 degrees west of south,” says Brown. “In 2017, it’s about 55 degrees west of south.” That adjustment is due to changes in market prices that accompany significant growth in PV generation — changes that will occur in other regions as they start to ramp up their solar generation.

The researchers stress that conditions are constantly changing on power grids and electricity markets. With that in mind, they made their database and computer code openly available so that others can readily use them to calculate updated estimates of the net benefits of PV power and other distributed energy resources.

They also emphasize the importance of getting time-varying prices to all market participants and of adapting installation and dispatch strategies to changing power system conditions. A law set to take effect in California in 2020 will require all new homes to have solar panels. Installing the usual south-facing panels with uncurtailable output could further saturate the electricity market at times when other PV installations are already generating.

“If new rooftop arrays instead use west-facing panels that can be switched off during negative price times, it’s better for the whole system,” says Brown. “Rather than just adding more solar at times when the price is already low and the electricity mix is already clean, the new PV installations would displace expensive and dirty gas generators in the evening. Enabling that outcome is a win all around.”

Patrick Brown and this research were supported by a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Postdoctoral Research Award through the EERE Solar Energy Technologies Office. The computer code and data repositories are available here and here .

This article appears in the  Spring 2020  issue of  Energy Futures, the magazine of the MIT Energy Initiative. 

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Solar Power World

Largest agrivoltaic research project in U.S. advances renewable energy while empowering local farmers

By SPW | June 10, 2021

The global installed capacity of agrivoltaics, or the co-development of the same area of land for both solar power and agriculture, has grown rapidly from about 5 MW in 2012 to approximately 2,900 MW in 2020. One of the largest driving factors for this growth is the need to continue to build solar projects to mitigate climate change in the face of dwindling available non-agricultural land. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), by 2030, utility-scale solar could cover almost 2 million acres of land in the United States. A recent Oregon State University study also estimates that converting just 1% of American farmland to agrivoltaics would not only meet the nation’s renewable energy targets, but also save water and create a sustainable, long-term food system. Additionally, agrivoltaics have been shown to increase crop production, solar panel efficiency as well as farmer income.

These are just a few of the drivers behind NREL’s Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment (InSPIRE) program, which launched NREL’s in-depth dual-land-use research about 10 years ago. NREL now performs research at nearly 30 sites across the country, with some sites focused on native vegetation and others that are more focused on pollinator habitats, pasture grass to support grazing livestock or horticulture crops. Among these sites, Jack’s Solar Garden, a 1.2-MW solar farm in Boulder County, Colorado, is unique in that it represents the largest agrivoltaic research project in the United States and encompasses all four types of vegetation at a single site. In addition to providing ample agrivoltaic research opportunities to partner institutions like NREL, Colorado State University and the University of Arizona, Jack’s is also a community solar garden that serves as a local hub of education and community service with hopes to inspire a new generation of dual-land-use farmers through its nonprofit arm, the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center .

Jack’s Solar Garden in Boulder, Colorado. Photo courtesy of Namasté Solar

Family farm raises new solar crop

Family-owned and operated for nearly 50 years, Jack’s is located on a 24-acre farm that was purchased in 1972 by Byron Kominek’s grandfather, Jack Stingerie. Although the farm had been used for hay and alfalfa production, Kominek learned that these crops were no longer paying the bills. Kominek, a former USAID natural resources officer and Peace Corps volunteer with a Master of Science in environmental engineering, has always been passionate about the environment and concerned about making a positive impact. Kominek decided that instead of competing with neighbors by developing his land into a chicken or tree farm, he wanted to build an agrivoltaic farm that would both serve as a source of greater income for his family as well as benefit to his local community.

According to Kominek, he wanted the farm to be “a model for other small farms that want to keep their soils productive while taking advantage of the economic benefits that clean energy production can provide.” From working to update local building codes, to submitting to and winning a request for proposal from the local utility, Kominek actively sought out and built a highly productive community solar farm on the land. Jack’s now produces enough energy to power about 300 homes and has more than 50 residential subscribers, five commercial subscribers, as well as the City of Boulder and Boulder County as subscribers. Additionally, 40 types of plants, such as blackberries, herbs and tomatoes, will be sowed under the solar arrays, and 3,000 trees, shrubs and other pollinator-friendly plants have been planted around the solar arrays.

Overcoming dual-use construction challenges

While Namasté Solar has extensive experience in agrivoltaics and co-located pollinator habitats, Kominek selected the Colorado-based, 16-year-old industry veteran firm because of its reputation. The 1.2-MW solar system is constructed with 3,276 solar panels paired with adaptable Solar FlexRack TDP Solar Trackers . Kominek originally became familiar with Namasté Solar’s top-tier work through its development, engineering, design and construction of the 1-MW Solinator Garden , which now provides solar power for the City of Fort Collins as well as hosts a pollinator garden.

First challenge: Installing solar panels and tracker system at greater, and varying, heights

Solar FlexRack’s versatile TDP 1.0 Solar Trackers being installed by Namasté Solar in Jack’s Solar Garden at one of two unique heights to better understand the different microclimates created by the different heights of panels, and the subsequent impact on vegetation underneath.

While typical solar panels stand 2 to 3 ft above the ground, solar panels located on agrivoltaic sites often need to be installed at greater heights to allow for adequate sunlight to reach the vegetation underneath and allow farm equipment to navigate easily. Since Jack’s is also serving as an agrivoltaics research site, the solar panels and solar tracker system needed to be installed at varying heights to enable researchers to better understand the different microclimates created by the different heights of panels.

Namasté Solar, an employee-owned cooperative and Certified B Corporation , selected Solar FlexRack’s single-axis TDP Solar Trackers due to their versatility, as they enabled Namasté Solar to easily and efficiently install two-thirds of the solar panels 6 ft high and one-third of the solar panels 8 ft high. Namasté Solar also chose the TDP Solar Trackers due to their smart backtracking, which reduces shading across rows and increases energy production.

Second challenge: Avoiding overly compacting native soil

Byron Kominek, owner of Jack’s Solar Garden, rides his family’s tractor through their solar power system. Photo by NREL

Given its extensive prior experience on dual-use projects, Namasté Solar also knew it was critical to avoid overly compacting native soil, which could potentially limit the planting of certain species. The firm therefore proactively identified strict drive lanes for heavy equipment and made sure its staff and all subcontractors stayed within these lanes. Namasté Solar also avoided overly compacting native soil by forgoing the use of gravel altogether.

Third challenge: Protecting equipment and civilians

Since this project did not have a perimeter fence, and because farmers would be active underneath the solar panels on a regular basis, all electrical conductors needed to be properly covered. While conductors would normally be in free air, Namasté Solar decided to implement a robust mesh animal guard product underneath the conductors to protect both the solar system equipment as well as civilians, thereby de-risking the project and avoiding any long-term liabilities.

Agrivoltaic research provides national education and guidance

From increasing solar panel efficiency to conserving water to increasing crop yield, the findings from this project will provide critical insights to enable the proliferation of dual use renewable energy projects across the United States. Research from a project site in Arizona has already indicated that solar panels with crops growing underneath stayed cooler by about 16°F and produced 2% more electricity than those without crops growing underneath. Jack’s research partners hope to find similarly persuasive results. Jon Wedel, co-owner and senior director of commercial services for Namasté Solar, said that increasing solar panel efficiency is in fact part of what drew Namasté Solar to this agrivoltaic project in the first place. Further supportive research from Jack’s about increased energy yield in the context of agrivoltaic projects will likely persuade more installers and developers to take on dual-use projects.

Shade from solar panels can also create cooler, more humid microclimates for vegetation, and researchers want to better understand, through research at Jack’s, whether this can help sustain crops prone to withering in arid climates like Colorado’s. Research already indicates that there is the potential to increase crop production by up to 70% as well as reduce water use by 30% when co-locating solar arrays with crops, and researchers anticipate similar findings from Jack’s. Denver-based Sprout City Farms will be managing the crop production underneath the solar array at Jack’s and will be working closely with Jack’s research institution partners.

A beehive operated by Best Bees and sponsored by Google located at Jack’s Solar Garden. Best Bees installs and maintains honeybee hives on commercial and residential properties across the U.S. and seeks to improve bee health and expand bee populations. Photo courtesy of Byron Kominek

Jack’s is also working to help struggling butterflies, bees and other pollinator species, which are responsible for pollinating nearly 75% of all crops consumed by humans, by adding flowers and grasses underneath solar panels. This is crucial, particularly as environmental stressors, such as land development and pesticides, have caused the number of bee colonies per hectare to decline by 90% since 1962 among U.S. crops that require bee pollination. Along with the partnerships with research institutions, Jack’s partnered with Audubon Rockies to plant the largest Habitat Hero in Colorado around the perimeter of the solar array – about 3,000 pollinator friendly perennials – in May 2020. Notably, pollinator-friendly plants have long root systems, which help conserve water by soaking up rainfall, which is important for semi-arid regions such as Colorado. Incorporating pollinator habitats under solar arrays also provides an opportunity to create large pollinator habitats at scale, which then can benefit surrounding agricultural communities through increased crop yield.

Community solar farm widens solar access, supports low income households and farmers

In addition to providing critical national research about dual-use projects, Jack’s Solar Garden has also brought clean energy and associated benefits to those previously unable to access it. Reports from NREL estimate that only 22 to 27% of residential rooftops can host solar panels.

Sprout City Farms, a Denver-based nonprofit farming organization responsible for managing the crop production underneath the solar arrays at Jack’s, doing an initial tilling underneath the panels. Pictured are Mega Caley, Executive Director, and Brittany Staie, farm manager at Jack’s Solar Garden, for Sprout City Farms.

Jack’s also donates 2% of its energy production to low-income households in Boulder County and has an Artist on the Farm program to support local creatives. Additionally, the food grown at Jack’s will help benefit Longmont residents experiencing food insecurity, as this year’s food will be distributed through the Longmont farmers market and anyone with federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be able to purchase the food at half price.

Students and community members also have an opportunity to tour Jack’s to learn about agriculture, solar power and land-use management through Jack’s new non-profit arm, the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center . Sprout City Farms will also offer incubator plots at Jack’s to help new farmers test their business plans and receive mentorship from experienced staff in the coming farm seasons. Jack’s is therefore cultivating the next generation of agrivoltaic farmers while simultaneously proving out the dual-use economic model, which allows farmers to maintain their land and enhance their agricultural activities while adding a new source of income from solar energy.

With Namasté Solar and Solar FlexRack’s help, Jack’s has been able to successfully emphasize the idea of community all while supporting crucial national research and education. Jack’s will also continue to prove the viability of agrivoltaics — both for farmers’ incomes and for future clean energy installers and developers, which will in turn enable greater national prosperity and the development of more renewable energy projects.

This case study was contributed to Solar Power World by HansenRE .

January 3, 2022 at 5:40 pm

What was the percentage capital cost increase versus a traditional solar array?

January 2, 2022 at 8:37 pm

What brand of panels were used?

June 14, 2021 at 11:36 pm

Excellent work, Jack’s Solar Garden, Namaste Solar, NREL and Solar FlexRack! What an impactful project in more ways than one. Thank you, Solar Power World, for sharing this informative case study.

June 11, 2021 at 11:59 pm

Agrivoltaics is the most needed agricultural reforms unfortunately it is not looked as mainstream. The economic and sustainability factors are high.

June 10, 2021 at 10:00 pm

“A recent Oregon State University study also estimates that converting just 1% of American farmland to agrivoltaics would not only meet the nation’s renewable energy targets, but also save water and create a sustainable, long-term food system. Additionally, agrivoltaics have been shown to increase crop production, solar panel efficiency as well as farmer income.”

There are some arid areas like in Arizona, that could sure use a simple raised solar PV canopy, then use the mounting poles to square out an area, say one acre. Then finish the sides of the poles with FRS to enclose the sides and put in metal rafters used as mounting rails for solar PV to use as roofing in these simple ‘greenhouses’. Ask any farmer rules and regulations are stifling the Agriculture industry. OSHA heat and shade requirements for outdoor operations at job sites like farms is getting strict and onerous. Things like water available for workers at around 85 degrees F, shade available from 85 degrees F and beyond. Using less water for crops, better protection from wind and storms, needing less pesticides and less fertilizer for every green house as well as extending the yearly harvest. Build this right and one could also harvest more crop from each acre. If one want to go vertical farming, you could install racks with troughs to use hydroponics to gain even more harvest from one acre of land.

June 10, 2021 at 3:10 pm

Great study by HansenRE.

Local farmers are definitely going to see lots of positives with alternative energy. I’m a big fan of Jack’s myself and I love what they have been doing. I mean even in the article, you can see all the good they provide.

:Jack’s also donates 2% of its energy production to low-income households in Boulder County and has an Artist on the Farm program to support local creatives.”

Love everything about this case study

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New canal project expands on UC Merced solar research

Federal and state government officials journeyed to the western corner of Merced County on Thursday to announce a new project to place solar panels on the water in the Delta-Mendota Canal.

The project is part of a $19 million investment through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act announced by the Department of the Interior to install panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah, with the aims of decreasing evaporation of critical water supplies and advancing clean energy goals.

How does solar over canals work? For a quick explainer, check out the Fig. 1 video below, then read on:

The Delta-Mendota Canal floating solar project is set to receive $15 million of this funding. The Bureau of Reclamation said the agency will collaborate with the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority and the University of California through a public-private-academic partnership to assess the impacts of floating photovoltaic solar arrays on the canal.

The pilot program intends to deploy up to three different technologies to assess the viability, costs and benefits of floating solar arrays over large conveyance facilities like the Delta-Mendota Canal. The initiative also will identify and address issues related to maintaining a canal with panels on it, explore the power generation potential and develop methods to quantify impacts on water quality.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who attended the announcement at the O’Neill Forebay near Santa Nella, said the Delta-Mendota effort will complement work the state has been doing with UC Merced, the Turlock Irrigation District and Solar AquaGrid.  Project Nexus , as that venture is called, will  install solar panels  over two spans of TID canals.

“In 2022 we set aside a $20 million appropriation and started to do these designs,” Newsom said.

The previous year, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz published a study showing that covering California’s approximately 4,000 miles of public water delivery infrastructure with solar panels could result in significant water, energy and cost savings for the state. The study projected a savings of up to 63 billion gallons of water annually — enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.

“You couldn’t read that without thinking, ‘Why didn’t we do this 25, 30 years ago?’” Newsom said. “This is a no-brainer. This is common sense.”

Installing solar panels on irrigation canals could provide benefits that include generating renewable energy, reducing evaporation losses, increasing efficiency of and production from solar panels because of the cooling effect of the water beneath the panels, creating land savings for open space and agricultural use, reducing facility maintenance by mitigating algae and/or aquatic plant growth, and reducing the energy footprint and carbon emissions required to operate and maintain the facility.

“It’s exciting to see research become reality through projects such as these, which have so much potential,” said UC Merced project scientist  Brandi McKuin , who conducted the initial study.

Other efforts funded through the Inflation Reduction Act are a project to float photovoltaic solar panels on a canal in Oregon and covering canals with solar panel structures in Utah. A previous award of $5.65 million will fund the construction and installation of solar panels over a canal in the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

“I think we’re going to look back at this moment and wonder what the hell took us so long,” Newsom said, “but also be very, very proud of this moment and the progress we’re announcing and advancing here.”

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The $20 million system in Singapore will be capable of removing 3,650 metric tons of CO2 per year.

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15 Topics for Solar Energy Research

Solar energy is a renewable resource that can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

Additionally, solar energy research can lead to the development of new technologies and jobs in the solar industry.

Finally, solar energy research can help to improve the efficiency of solar cells and make them more affordable for consumers.

Machine learning

Bionic leaf, others five topics, solar energy research topics for high school, how is solar energy the future, how does solar energy work (for your research), what are the 2 main disadvantages of solar energy, 15 topics for you to do solar energy research.

Solar energy research and development is a big topic. Here are 15 different solar energy topics you can write about for your next solar energy research paper:

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed a machine learning program to forecast the performance of future solar photovoltaic materials, including “virtual” compounds that do not yet exist.

The technique was developed in collaboration with Industry Partner CSIRO and is now freely accessible and simple to use for research teams all over the world.

It will significantly accelerate the development of more efficient solar cells, which are increasingly important as renewable energy’s popularity rises and carbon emissions reduction becomes more crucial.

Scientists recently created a model named bionic leaf that can separate sunlight into water into hydrogen and oxygen. With bacteria engineering, it converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen into a liquid fuel called isopropanol. The efficiency of this process is 1 percent, and you can turn sunlight into fuel.

This research is currently in the initial stage, and you can improve it if you are interested. This is a possible process that can become an outstanding source of renewable energy. The improvement of energy recreation will be a great solution. It allows scientists to use natural resources for energy production.

Some other topics you can start researching are listed below. The thin film solar is one of the key directions that many governments want to develop due to its advantages. If you are super serious about your subject, you can dig deeper into that field and maybe, spend more time on the lab, connect to others in the solar e, and who knows, in the future, we will have a new technology that can save a million trees.

• Thin Film Solar
• Carbon-Based Solar Cells
• Polymer Solar Cells
• Solar Concentration Technology
• Lignocellulose Hydrolysis Technology

Those are topics for your next research paper. If you are a high school student and want to do some research about solar energy, below are some simpler topics that you can learn and present in front of the class.

• The cost of solar energy research and development
• Solar energy storage methods
• Solar power in transportation
• Solar energy in the home
• Solar water heating
• Solar space heating and cooling
• Solar cooking
• Solar pool heating
• Passive solar building design
• Active solar building technologies
• Solar air conditioning
• Solar photovoltaic cells
• Solar thermal power plants
• Solar desalination
• The future of solar energy research and development

I have listed a few possible topics for you to write about in your solar energy research paper. These are only a few of the many possibilities available to you. Be sure to brainstorm other ideas and do some preliminary research before settling on a topic. Good luck!

The future of solar energy is very bright. Solar energy is a clean, renewable resource that can be used to generate electricity, heat homes and businesses, and power transportation. With the right policies in place, solar energy could provide a significant portion of the world’s energy needs.

Solar energy works by trapping sunlight in solar panels and converting it into electricity. Solar panels are made up of a series of cells that contain semiconductors, such as silicon. When sunlight hits the cell, it causes an electric field to be created. The electricity generated can then be used to power homes and businesses.

First, solar energy is not a consistent source of energy because it is dependent on the amount of sunlight available. Second, solar energy is also relatively expensive to set up compared to other forms of energy generation.

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New Canal Project Expands on UC Merced Solar Research

Federal and state government officials journeyed to the western corner of Merced County on Thursday to announce a new project to place solar panels on the water in the Delta-Mendota Canal.

The project is part of a $19 million investment through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act announced by the Department of the Interior to install panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah, with the aims of decreasing evaporation of critical water supplies and advancing clean energy goals.

The Delta-Mendota Canal floating solar project is set to receive $15 million of this funding. The Bureau of Reclamation said the agency will collaborate with the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority and the University of California through a public-private-academic partnership to assess the impacts of floating photovoltaic solar arrays on the canal.

The pilot program intends to deploy up to three different technologies to assess the viability, costs and benefits of floating solar arrays over large conveyance facilities like the Delta-Mendota Canal. The initiative also will identify and address issues related to maintaining a canal with panels on it, explore the power generation potential and develop methods to quantify impacts on water quality.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who attended the announcement at the O’Neill Forebay near Santa Nella, said the Delta-Mendota effort will complement work the state has been doing with UC Merced, the Turlock Irrigation District and Solar AquaGrid. Project Nexus , as that venture is called, will install solar panels over two spans of TID canals.

“In 2022 we set aside a $20 million appropriation and started to do these designs,” Newsom said.

The previous year, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz published a study showing that covering California’s approximately 4,000 miles of public water delivery infrastructure with solar panels could result in significant water, energy and cost savings for the state. The study projected a savings of up to 63 billion gallons of water annually – enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.

“You couldn’t read that without thinking, ‘Why didn’t we do this 25, 30 years ago?’” Newsom said. “This is a no-brainer. This is common sense.”

Installing solar panels on irrigation canals could provide benefits that include generating renewable energy, reducing evaporation losses, increasing efficiency of and production from solar panels because of the cooling effect of the water beneath the panels, creating land savings for open space and agricultural use, reducing facility maintenance by mitigating algae and/or aquatic plant growth, and reducing the energy footprint and carbon emissions required to operate and maintain the facility.

“It’s exciting to see research become reality through projects such as these, which have so much potential,” said UC Merced project scientist Brandi McKuin , who conducted the initial study.

Other efforts funded through the Inflation Reduction Act are a project to float photovoltaic solar panels on a canal in Oregon and covering canals with solar panel structures in Utah. A previous award of $5.65 million will fund the construction and installation of solar panels over a canal in the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

“I think we’re going to look back at this moment and wonder what the hell took us so long,” Newsom said, “but also be very, very proud of this moment and the progress we’re announcing and advancing here.”

Patty Guerra

Media Contact

Office: (209) 769-0948

[email protected]

Video Spotlight

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• university of new orleans
• campus news
• university of new orleans partners with bernhard to launch innovative

CAMPUS NEWS: MARCH 27, 2024

Solar panels, university of new orleans partners with bernhard to launch innovative solar array installation.

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The University of New Orleans and Bernhard announced the completion of a state-of-the-art solar array on the University’s campus on Wednesday, March 27, which will offset UNO’s annual electric consumption.

The University of New Orleans and Bernhard today announced the completion of a state-of-the-art solar array on the University’s campus, which will offset 17% of UNO’s annual electric consumption. This initiative marks a significant step forward in UNO's commitment to sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint.

Completed in just 10 months, the project comprises 3,300 panels seamlessly integrated into UNO's infrastructure to provide immediate benefits to the on-campus community. The array is located on the west side of campus in a parking lot between The Cove and Privateer Place.

“The completion of the solar array project marks a major milestone in the University’s sustainability efforts,” said UNO President Kathy Johnson. “It will help reduce our carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions starting right now. I am thrilled that our partnership with Bernhard has yielded such an innovative approach to energy usage.”        One of the standout features of the solar array is its ability to monitor and match UNO's energy consumption on a second-by-second basis. The array never produces more electricity than the University utilizes, so there is no excess electricity to feed back into the grid, which maximizes sustainability efforts.

The benefits of this pioneering project are multifaceted. Not only does the sun serve as a renewable green energy source, reducing UNO's reliance on traditional utility providers, but it significantly diminishes UNO’s carbon footprint. UNO also stands to benefit financially, with anticipated savings from reduced energy costs and eligibility for a 30% Investment Tax Credit rebate totaling approximately $520,000.

The solar array's environmental impact is substantial, with an estimated annual reduction of 1,721 metric tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to removing 319 cars from the road or planting 40,263 trees in one year, according to Bernhard’s estimates. This underscores UNO's commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, Johnson said.

The solar array installation is part of a 25-year partnership between Bernhard and UNO aimed at revitalizing the University's energy infrastructure, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting UNO's academic and research endeavors. Over the partnership's lifetime, UNO anticipates that the solar array together with the other energy efficiency improvements will generate $2.1 million in annual utility cost savings—$52.5 million over 25 years—while addressing nearly $9 million in deferred maintenance.

UNO's 200-acre lakefront campus is undergoing extensive energy infrastructure improvements totaling $27 million within the partnership's initial 24 months. These enhancements include the solar array installation, renewal of chilled water systems, building asset upgrades, efficiency improvements and retro-commissioning efforts, all aimed at enhancing sustainability and efficiency.

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Solar panels at petersen sports complex first in planned rollout for campus rooftops.

By SHANNON O. WELLS

For the first time since 2012, Pitt’s Oakland campus has a new array of electricity-generating solar panels, but the recent installation on a roof at the Petersen Sports Complex is only the beginning of a wave of solar power infrastructure coming to the University.

With the four solar panels now installed at the sports complex, the Office of Sustainability is finalizing efforts, including state and utility-company inspections, to bring the array online to offset traditional electricity sources. Installations on the rooftops of Posvar, Ruskin and David Lawrence halls are scheduled to begin this summer.

All four arrays are “behind-the-meter” rooftop solar arrays with bifacial panels that feed solar-generated energy directly into Pitt’s Oakland power system.

Combined, the new 1.08-megawatt arrays annually will produce an estimated 1,128,680-kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, the equivalent of powering 61.5 homes or removing 109 cars from the road, noted Aurora Sharrard, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability.

Rooftop solar panels also are planned on seven current or future Pitt buildings, including the Recreation and Wellness Center , the Arena and Sports Performance Center, and BioForge , a $250 million biomanufacturing facility planned for 3.5 acres at the Hazelwood Green site. To best align the life cycle of solar panels with roofing materials, the University is focusing its solar-energy efforts on newer roofs, Sharrard noted.

She called the new solar panel array on the Petersen Sports Complex roof a “visible manifestation of Pitt’s climate action strategies being implemented behind the scenes over the past several years.

“The (Petersen Sports Complex) and other on-campus rooftop solar arrays will directly contribute to our goals of carbon neutrality by 2037 and 100 percent renewable electricity produced or procured on the same timeframe,” she said.

Cleaning the University’s energy supply is a key element of the Pitt Sustainability Plan and Climate Action Plan . Both on- and off-campus renewable projects will combine to help Pitt reach its goal of producing or procuring 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030 on the way to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2037.

“We are always focused on efficiency first, as the best carbon reduction is from energy we don’t have to use,” Sharrard said.

For the 2023 calendar year, 28.3 percent of Pitt’s electricity originated from renewable energy sources, and Pitt received a 2023 PA Solar Center  Lodestar Award  for its solar leadership.

Scott Bernotas, vice chancellor of facilities management, said the Petersen rooftop array and the “many more to come” will help reduce Pitt's carbon footprint by using a clean energy source. They will also improve the University’s energy reliability by relying less on the energy grid and “providing direct power that does not have transmission and distribution losses,” he added.

Another part of Pitt’s renewable energy plan is the 20-megawatt Vesper Gaucho Solar project , a 20-year power-purchase solar-panel partnership between Pitt and Texas-based Vesper Energy. It was dedicated in August 2023 at its 68-acre farm site near Findlay Township and Clinton near the Allegheny-Beaver county line.

The facility is expected to produce 37,500 megawatt hours annually for the Pitt campus via Duquesne Lighting Co.’s transmission system, reducing the University’s greenhouse gas emissions by 15,452 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, comparable to removing 3,330 fuel-burning vehicles from the roads, the Office of Sustainability said.

The on-campus rooftop solar arrays, which collectively will generate a little more than 2 megawatts, aren’t in the same league as the Vesper Gaucho project, which provides electricity equivalent to 18 percent of the University's energy consumption. Bernotas noted that the rooftop arrays “help eliminate the carbon impacts of Pitt’s remaining 82 percent of electricity that the Gaucho Solar farm does not supply.”

“It also reduces the University’s utility costs by generating electricity where it is used,” he said.

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at  [email protected] .

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Photovoltaic Stormwater Management Research and Testing

PV-SMaRT field-testing equipment monitoring underground soil moisture at a New York PV facility. Photo from Scott McArt, Cornell University

The Photovoltaic Stormwater Management Research and Testing (PV-SMaRT) project is developing and disseminating research-based, PV-specific tools and best practices for stormwater management and water quality at ground-mounted PV sites.

To achieve PV-SMaRT's goal, NREL is partnering with the University of Minnesota , Great Plains Institute , and Fresh Energy .

Stormwater Management for PV Facilities

Many jurisdictions treat ground-mounted PV facilities as predominantly impervious surfaces or surfaces that do not allow water to soak into the ground. However, rather than acting like a paved surface, rainwater can generally infiltrate under elevated PV arrays.

Because current stormwater runoff models used by local and state jurisdictions were not designed for ground-mounted PV, the stormwater permitting process can impose costly additional stormwater infrastructure requirements. Often, additional land must be leased or purchased for stormwater mitigation measures, such as detention ponds. The  permitting process also often lacks accuracy and leaves unanswered questions for jurisdictions when they attempt to evaluate applications for risks and opportunities associated with ground-mounted PV facilities.

Through its research and analysis, the PV-SMaRT project aims to address the stormwater and water quality challenges facing PV facilities in most jurisdictions.

Research Findings

PV-SMaRT's research and modeling highlight four factors that should be considered in stormwater management and water quality permitting for PV arrays (in order of greatest impact):

Compaction—managing soil compaction and bulk density across the site

Soil depth—including soil depth (rooting depth) in stormwater modeling and design

Ground cover—installing, establishing, and maintaining appropriate vegetated ground cover between and under the arrays to facilitate infiltration

Disconnection—ensuring appropriate distance between arrays for infiltration.

These factors are drawn from the report Best Practices: Photovoltaic Stormwater Management Research and Testing (PV-SMaRT) , published by the Great Plains Institute, a PV-SMaRT partner.

Stormwater Runoff Calculator

PV-SMaRT has developed an easy-to-use calculator to estimate stormwater runoff from ground-mounted PV arrays. This calculator is based on research and hydrologic modeling conducted at a set of research sites featuring diverse climatic, topographic, and soil conditions, with either fixed or tracking solar arrays, and vegetation that included pollinators, grass, or cover crops.

Climatic and hydrologic field measurements at each site were used to develop a two-dimensional numerical model for stormwater runoff based on specific combinations of a wide range in 24-hour design storms, soil textures, crop rooting depth, soil bulk densities, presence or absence of solar arrays, spacing of solar arrays, type of ground cover, and slope steepness values.

To learn how to use the calculator, watch this recording of a webinar hosted by Fresh Energy.

PV Field Research Sites

The PV-SMaRT project is using five ground-mounted PV sites in the United States to study stormwater infiltration and runoff. These sites represent a range of elevations, slopes, soil types, and geographical locations. The unique conditions at each site are being characterized, and measurements are being taken of soil infiltration, runoff, site vegetation density, speciation and rooting depth, precipitation, and drip edge runoff.

Minnesota's site has a 3.4-megawatt (MW) DC, fixed-mount, two-in-portrait PV array. It has sandy soil with a pollinator mix dominated by black-eyed Susan daisies and receives 37 in. of annual rainfall. Equipment was installed in June 2020 and will operate for 2 years.

New York's site has an 18-MW DC, fixed-mount, two-in-portrait PV array. It has silt loam soil with a tall grass and clover mix, is ungrazed or grazed by sheep, and receives 49 in. of annual rainfall. Equipment was installed in June 2020 and will operate for 2 years.

Oregon's site has a 9.9-MW DC, tracking, two-in-portrait PV array. It's a flat site with clay soil, a diverse pollinator seed mix, and 16 in. of annual rainfall. Equipment was installed in August 2020 and will operate for 2 years.

Colorado's site has a 1-MW DC, tracking, one-in-portrait PV array. It has clay soil and pollinator-friendly vegetation and receives 16 in. of annual rainfall. Equipment was installed in September 2020 and will operate for 2 years.

Georgia's site has a 1.3-MW DC, tracking, one-in-portrait PV array. It's a flat site with sandy clay soil, mowed cover crops, a high-diversity pollinator mix, and 49 in. of annual rainfall. Equipment was installed in September 2020 and will operate for 2 years.

Water Quality Task Force

The PV-SMaRT water quality task force works closely with the project team to provide feedback and guidance on the technical analysis, modeling, validation, and creation of water quality best practices. The task force is made up of individuals who represent a variety of views and stakeholder groups, including water quality experts, stormwater professionals, and solar industry representatives. Task force members understand the landscape of technical, strategic, permitting, and ground-mounted PV site development issues to meeting water quality goals.

Task force members include:

• Jason Bernagros, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development
• Seth Brown, National Municipal Stormwater Association
• Veronica Craw, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• Dave Gasper, New York Department of Environmental Conservation
• Robert Goo, EPA Office of Wetlands, Watersheds
• Britta Hansen, Emmons Olivier Resources
• Greg Hoffman, Center for Watershed Protection
• Jake Janski, Minnesota Native Landscapes
• Gavin Chase Meinschein, Engie North America
• David Morley, American Planning Association
• Andrew Nelson, Westwood Professional Services
• Peter Parkinson, AES Distributed Energy
• Sybil Sharvelle, Colorado State InTERFEWS Director.

Publications

Best Practices: Photovoltaic Stormwater Management Research and Testing (PV-SMaRT) , Great Plains Institute Report (2023)

Creating Water Quality Value in Ground-Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Sites , International Erosion Control Association News Story (2022)

PV-SMaRT: Potential Stormwater Barriers and Opportunities , Great Plains Institute (2021)

InSPIRE: Innovative Solar Practices Integrated With Rural Economies and Ecosystems Website , OpenEI

James McCall

Energy and environment analyst.

[email protected] 303-275-3759

China solar industry faces shakeout, but rock-bottom prices to persist

• China has driven global oversupply of solar production capacity
• Prices of Chinese solar panels fell 42% in 2023 -Wood Mackenzie
• China's 2023 production capacity was double global installations

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How right-wing media used a Texas hail storm to bash solar power projects

Local news reports relied heavily on anti-renewable energy activists

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

Published 04/03/24 1:16 PM EDT

Right-wing media are helping local anti-renewable energy activists spread unsubstantiated claims that a damaged industrial solar project may be leaking toxic chemicals into a Texas community’s water supply, while other conservative pundits on social media amplify viral video of the storm’s aftermath to bash solar energy. 

On March 15 and 16, severe and destructive hailstorms hit central and north Texas. In the aftermath, local media reports amplified unconfirmed concerns from local anti-solar activists about the panels at a local solar farm damaged by the storm supposedly leaching cadmium, a toxic metal. Those credulous reports — and a social media video showing footage of damaged solar panels — helped trigger a deluge of commentary from right-wing websites and influencers who falsely insisted that solar power is unsafe and unreliable.

Social media users shared video of a large-scale solar project in Fort Bend County, Texas, that sustained visible damage from a hailstorm

• Severe storms hit central and north Texas from March 15-16, with residents reporting “baseball-sized” hailstones damaging their property. The storm left thousands of residents in the Houston area without electricity after “numerous” power lines reportedly went down. Residents described hearing large hailstones striking their homes and cars in the night, which they said sounded like gunshots as they landed. [KRIV, 3/15/24 ; KPRC 2 Houston, 3/15/24 ; Facebook, 3/15/24 ; HailTrace, 3/15/24 ; Fort Bend Herald, 3/19/24 ]  
• A 3,300-acre solar project called Fighting Jays Solar in Fort Bend County, Texas, sustained significant damage from the hailstorm. According to its website, the project — which is roughly four times the size of New York City’s Central Park — has been in commission since 2022, and generates 350 megawatts of energy. Aerial footage showed what appeared to be thousands of panels with extensive cracks, presumably from the hail. One of the companies that developed the project, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, told Newsweek that it was “assessing the extent of the impact of the storm on the generation of the project, while the plant continues to safely operate at a reduced capacity.” [Fighting’s Jay, accessed 3/27/24 ; GlobalData, accessed 3/28/24 ; Newsweek, 3/26/24 ]  
• On March 25, an X user shared aerial footage showing several sections of solar panels that appeared to have been smashed by hail, asking, “Who pays to fix this green energy? @StateFarm? @FarmBureau? @Allstate? Or you the taxpayer?” Right-wing and anti-renewable energy social media accounts shared the post and footage widely. [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 , 3/25/24 ]  
• According to experts, solar panels are hardier and safer than renewable energy opponents suggest. Solar panels are built to withstand severe weather and can still function even if they crack, though panels can become less efficient if the damage is bad enough. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory study found that “solar panels that have been subjected to severe weather events produce about 1% less energy per year after these events.” [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 8/21/23 ; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1/24/24 ; Utility Dive,  2/1/24 ]

Local news raised concerns about “busted solar panels” that could be “leaking chemicals” after the storm, but largely failed to report that those concerns came from anti-solar activists

• ABC affiliate KTRK published an article titled “Fort Bend Co. neighbors want to know whether solar panel farm's hailstorm damage leaked chemicals” which relied heavily on an interview with local anti-solar activist Nick Kaminski. The article focused on Kaminski’s concern that chemicals oozing from solar panels that were smashed in the storm would contaminate his water, writing: “Experts said that most of the time, large solar farm panels are made of compound cadmium telluride. This is something Kaminski is worried about because he uses well water. ‘That's what we take a shower with, we drink with,’ Kaminski explained. ‘It could be in our water now.’” [KTRK, 3/22/24]    
• An article on Fox affiliate KRIV’s website, titled “Needville community concerned about thousands of busted solar panels,” relied almost entirely on quotes from Kaminski and another anti-solar activist, Myles Fuqua.  The article cited Kaminski as someone who was “worried about the environmental impact before the solar farms were built,” saying, “My concern is the hail damage that came through and busted these panels we now have some highly toxic chemicals that could be potentially leaking into our water tables.” The article also quoted “Mikes Fugua,” seemingly a misspelling of local anti-solar activist Myles Fuqua, who said: “There's numerous makeup in the chemicals on this thing. The majority of them are cancer-causing.” [KRIV, 3/22/24 ]  
• Experts say there is little evidence that cadmium telluride from functioning solar farms is harming surrounding communities. The vast majority of solar panels today don’t even contain the metal, and the ones that do use safer, more stable formulation of it. The developers behind Fighting Jay’s have said their panels are silicon-based and do not contain cadmium. “The silicon-based panels contain no cadmium telluride and we have identified no risk to the local community or the environment,” a spokesperson for Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners told Newsweek. [Newsweek, 3/26/24 ; Inside Climate News, 10/12/23 ]  
• Since 2021, Kaminski has been a member of “Stop Solar Farms,” a Facebook group with 6,000 members. On March 20, Kaminski posted photos of the damage in the group and wrote, “All these chemicals leaking into our water tables are going to be lovely.” Members of the group and similar local groups regularly post disinformation about renewable energy. [Facebook,  3/20/24 ; Znet, 4/11/23 ; Distilled, 10/28/22 ]  
• Fuqua is also a member of “Stop Solar Farms” and has expressed anti-solar energy views on Facebook. In the Stop Solar Farms group, Fuqua posted photos of panels that had seemingly been damaged in the hail storm, writing, “We said it was going to happen, and it did.” In 2022, Fuqua wrote in a post, “Anyone thinks that solar is cool and the way to go can kiss my ass.” [Facebook, 3/22/24 , 9/27/22 ]  
• The KRIV article also did not mention that Fuqua sued three solar companies for creating a “private nuisance” by constructing a separate commercial solar farm in Fort Bend County, which he argued would “substantially interfere with” the “use and enjoyment of” his property and diminish its value. Fuqua later voluntarily dropped one of the companies from the lawsuit, and legal proceedings surrounding the claim have been suspended until July 2024. [Trellis, 6/30/23 , 2/23/24 ]

Citing local reports, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, and The Daily Caller ran with Kaminski's anti-solar narrative

• A Fox News report on the damage sustained during the storm detailed local “concern about vulnerable ‘green’ tech,” citing Kaminski as simply a “Needville resident.” The article also quoted fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner, the executive director of Koch-connected Power the Future, who claimed that the storm illustrated renewable energy’s “enormous drawbacks. And it's doing the American people a great disservice to obfuscate these very obvious shortcomings." [Fox News, 3/27/24 ; DeSmog, accessed 4/2/24 ]  
• The Daily Caller regurgitated KTRK's and KRIV’s coverage. The story honed in on Kaminski’s complaints and amplified the widely shared X post featuring aerial footage of Fighting Jays’ damaged panels. [The Daily Caller, 3/26/24 ]  
• Conspiracy theory outlet The Gateway Pundit published a story titled “Texas Hail Storm Destroys Thousands of Acres of Solar Farms.” The article cited Kaminski’s interview with KRIV and embedded social media posts showing damaged panels. [The Gateway Pundit, 3/26/24 ; Reuters, 12/3/21 ]

Other right-wing figures spread footage of the storm's aftermath on social media to suggest renewable energy isn't safe or reliable

• An anti-renewable energy group fighting solar development in Knox County, Ohio, amplified the viral video showing aerial footage of hail-damaged panels. Knox Smart Development is a dark-money funded group that is currently attempting to derail a large-scale solar project in Ohio. The group, which locals suspect is funded by the CEO of a methane gas producer, amplified the viral post on its website. [Canary Media, 3/15/24 ; Knox Smart Development, archived 3/26/24 ]  
• Another Ohio anti-solar community group, Preserve Knox County, posted the video on its Facebook page. [Facebook, 3/23/24 ]  
• Climate denial and conspiracy account Wide Awake Media: “Net Zero fail: A single hail storm in Damon, Texas, destroys thousands of acres of solar panels.” The post continued: “Is it really wise to make ourselves dependent on expensive energy infrastructure that can be rendered permanently useless by a bout of bad weather?” [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 , Media Matters, 9/19/23 ]  
• Brownstone Institute president and Epoch Times contributor Jeffrey Tucker: “Is it really this bad? Can a huge solar panel farm really be rendered useless by a hail storm? If so, this whole endeavor is preposterous. It's a step backwards for humanity, which is probably the point.” [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 ]  
• Ryan Maue, a White House scientist under then-President Donald Trump who was fired after promoting climate skepticism: “Flag this Hail storm demolished thousands of solar panels and neighbors concerned about toxic, cancer causing chemicals leaching into well water.” He added, “Every solar farm apparently has the potential to become the next Superfund site.” [Twitter/X, 3/25/24 ]  
• Power the Future President Daniel Turner: “A hail storm in Texas caused extensive damage to thousands of acres of solar panels. Green energy is the future... in a world with no hail.” [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 ]  
• “ULTRAMAGA” account SaltyGoat: “Thousands of acres of solar panels are destroyed following a hail storm yesterday in Damon, Texas But sure... Let's try and run the world off of this BULLSHlT!!!” [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 ]  
• Right-wing account Citizen Free Press: “Hail storm in Texas yesterday destroys thousands of acres of solar farms. The Climate Mafia was unavailable for comment.” [Twitter/X, 3/25/24 ]  
• Will Tanner, co-founder of the right-wing American Tribune, repeated that the solar panels were “leaking a toxic compound … into the water.” He wrote: “In yet another massive L for 'green' energy boondoggles, a massive swathe of solar panels in Damon, Texas were taken out by a hail storm. And not only were the expensive panels rendered useless by the weather, but now they're leaking a toxic compound, cadmium telluride, into the water. So not only do Texans get intermittent energy instead of constant energy, not only do they waste thousands of acres of land with solar farms, but now the pointless panels are leaking into the groundwater.” [Twitter/X, 3/25/24 ]  
• Right-wing MAGA account “I Meme Therefore I Am” wrote: “BREAKING: 1,000’s of Solar Panels Decimated During Hail Storm at Damon, TX Solar Farms How is that for ‘clean green energy’?!” [Twitter/X, 3/25/24 ]  
• RedState contributor Bonchie: “‘Saving the environment’ by covering it in dozens of square miles of inefficient solar panels that can’t even survive a hail storm.” [Twitter/X, 3/25/24 ]  
• Newsmax anchor Alex Kraemer cited footage of damaged panels at Fighting Jays to argue for nuclear power. She said, “I recently just saw on Twitter, this massive field of those solar panels completely destroyed by hail. I mean, it's just, you cannot keep up with that kind of stuff. You've seen what happens to those windmills. Let’s just meet in the middle and use the nuclear power.” [Newsmax, Wake Up America , 3/28/24 ]

In reality, fossil fuel production is unsafe and unreliable, not renewables

• The negative health impacts of burning fossil fuels are well-documented. Research from University College London found that in 2018, burning fossil fuels was responsible for 8.7 million deaths globally. A January report from Human Rights Watch also found that largely Black communities in Louisiana in close proximity to several petrochemical plants and refineries are facing “severe health harms including elevated burdens and risks of cancer, reproductive, maternal, and newborn health harms, and respiratory ailments.” [Human Rights Watch, 1/25/24 ; The Guardian, 2/9/2021 ]  
• Extreme heat and cold temperatures have caused fossil fuel infrastructure to malfunction. During a deadly winter storm that killed hundreds in 2021, natural gas equipment failed to withstand the storm’s cold temperatures. In summer 2023, oil refineries in Texas and Louisiana decreased energy production due to extreme heat, which led to extensive power outages and higher gas prices. [Spectrum News 1, 7/28/23 ; Forbes, 10/9/23 ; The Texas Tribune; 1/3/22 ]  
• As Texas experiences more extreme weather events, the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas, which controls the state’s energy grid, has increased its reliance on solar energy. On March 26, amid a flurry of tornado warnings, the state set a new record for daily solar energy use. [Twitter/X, 3/26/24 ; ABC News, 3/25/24 ; Amarillo Globe-News, 3/26/24 ]

Scientists gear up to study solar eclipse with high-altitude planes and sun-orbiting probes

For the millions of people across North America who will be treated to a total solar eclipse on April 8, it will be spectacular show — a chance to see the moon fully obscure the sun’s face .

But for scientists, it is a rare opportunity to study Earth, the moon and the sun “in entirely different ways than we usually do,” said Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator.

One of the agency’s main priorities will be to observe the sun’s outer atmosphere, or the corona, which normally can’t be seen because the star is too bright. During a total solar eclipse, the corona comes into view as faint wisps around a glowing halo when the moon blocks light from the sun’s surface.

“Things are happening with the corona that we don’t fully understand, and the eclipse gives us a unique opportunity to collect data that may give insights into the future of our star,” Melroy said in a news briefing last week.

Scientists are interested in the corona because it plays a key role in transferring heat and energy into the solar wind, the constant stream of charged particles released from the sun’s outer atmosphere. The solar wind ebbs and flows, occasionally shooting high-powered solar flares into space. These can hit Earth with electromagnetic radiation , which can cause radio blackouts and knock out power grids.

Amir Caspi, a solar astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, has an instrument installed in the nose of a WB-57 aircraft that will study the sun’s atmosphere as the plane chases the eclipse.

It’s a golden opportunity, he said, since even the special telescopes that can block out a star’s light, known as coronagraphs, have limitations.

“A total solar eclipse is like nature’s perfect coronagraph,” he said. “The moon comes between us and the sun, and it’s exactly the right size in the sky to block out the disc of the sun but not too much more.”

Caspi will focus on trying to understand the origin of the solar wind. He also hopes to gather clues about a long-standing mystery: why the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the sun.

He pioneered this method of imaging the sun’s corona in 2017, during the last total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S.

“We didn’t know what we would get,” he said. “It was nail-biting for quite some time, and then we got amazing data. I could see it coming down off the live satellite feed.”

The WB-57 plane can fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet, well above any clouds and high enough that Earth’s atmosphere won’t interfere as much with the observations.

Many researchers plan to gather data about the sun’s atmosphere from other vantage points during the eclipse, including from space.

Several spacecraft, including NASA’s Parker Solar Probe , will have their eyes trained on the sun throughout the celestial event. The probe launched in 2018, so it wasn’t available to study the 2017 solar eclipse.

In 2021, the Parker probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona, and it has since flown more than a dozen close approaches to “touch” the sun. Due to the timing of its orbit, the probe will not be on a close encounter on April 8. But it will be near enough to the sun to measure and image solar wind as the charged particles stream by, according to Nour Raouafi, the Parker Solar Probe project scientist and an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Additionally, a spacecraft from the European Space Agency, known as Solar Orbiter , will be circling almost directly above the Parker Solar Probe at the time of the eclipse. Together, the observatories will tag-team to capture details of the sun’s atmosphere and the solar wind.

“It’s one of the rare occasions that these two spacecraft come so close together,” Raouafi said. “So, we will have a lot of synergies between them, in between all the observation we will do during the eclipse from Earth, which is something totally, totally unprecedented.”

The sun has been ramping up toward a peak in its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, expected in 2025. That means the Parker Solar Probe will have a front-row seat should any eruptions belch from the sun.

There are no guarantees that such outbursts will happen during the eclipse, but Raouafi said measurements of the solar wind from space will still be crucial to understanding the effects of the sun’s activity on Earth.

“These are the drivers of space weather, and the probe is probably the best tool we have out there, the best spacecraft mission we have out there, to help us understand that,” he said. “And the way to do it? Let’s hope for the sun to give us the biggest show it can produce.”

Even for nonscientists, the darkness that will temporarily take hold of afternoon skies along the so-called path of totality will be an extraordinary experience.

“I remember the first time that I learned that it’s kind of a very rare thing — that it just so happens that our moon is the right size and distance to cause this effect here on Earth,” Melroy said. “It’s really a miracle of our universe.”

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

Chase Cain is a national climate reporter for NBC News.