Duke Energy’s Lake Placid Solar Power Plant skilled an EF-2 twister throughout Hurricane Milton, which took out a portion of the photo voltaic modules whereas leaving many of the facility intact.
From pv journal USA
A twister destroyed a solar energy plant in central Florida. Footage launched by Duke Energy exhibits a swath of photo voltaic modules being faraway from the single-axis trackers that maintain them in place.
Local climate stories recognized the storm as an EF-2 twister, with winds between 111 and 135 miles per hour. According to the county sheriff’s division, the twister touched down earlier than Hurricane Milton made landfall, which additionally destroyed 20 to 30 properties within the space.
The Duke Energy facility was initially developed by EDF Renewables earlier than being offered to Duke Energy, which accomplished growth and development of the plant in 2019. The photo voltaic portion of the plant has a grid connection capability of 45 MW, supported of 63.2 MW of photo voltaic panels. An 18 MW lithium-ion battery was added to the location in 2022.
In the Duke Energy video beneath, the trail of the twister might be seen shifting throughout the ability, though the precise course of the storm is unclear. Damage was restricted to the western quadrant of the ability, leaving many of the plant intact and presumably nonetheless operational. The twister’s monitor is principally from north to south, with the storm showing wider within the northern half earlier than diverging because it strikes south.
Duke Energy reported that in Hurricane Milton, Florida issued a minimum of 126 twister warnings.
According to paperwork launched in 2019, the photo voltaic farm value roughly $60.6 million to construct.
Since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida has always strengthened its wind codes, implementing improvements over the a long time to make constructions extra proof against excessive winds. One important change is the rise in wind pace necessities for brand new development. The photo voltaic farm, positioned in Highland County, should be structurally designed to resist sturdy winds of as much as 150 mph.
Just a few years in the past, the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory printed a report providing steerage on wind hardening solar energy programs. The doc, Solar Photovoltaics in Severe Weather: Cost Considerations for Storm Hardening PV Systems for Resilience, outlines 13 methods to enhance a website’s potential to resist increased wind speeds, together with their related prices. enhancements.
In normal, single-axis trackers have a tendency to offer much less steady assist for photo voltaic panels in comparison with fastened racking programs.
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