So I just posted this on Facebook. I wonder what sort of response I’ll get?
So that purple area is right over the Turning Sun solar array under construction southwest of Estevan. This is at 11:50 p.m. on Friday. I feel bad for the farmers, for sure, as that purple is likely hail. The question is, how will the array fare? I’m not nearby this weekend, so if anyone notices any damage, please let me know.
This is what Environment Canada says: “At 11:46 PM CST, a line of severe thunderstorms is located from about Oungre to Estevan then to 25 km south of North Portal. These severe thunderstorms are moving northeast at 35 km/h. Damaging wind gusts, up to quarter size hail and heavy rain are possible.”
A big question I’ve been asking for years is this: Show me one place in Saskatchewan where you can guarantee it will not be hit by toonie sized hail over the next 25 years? I asked SARM’s board this. They all laughed, because they have a hail insurance company for that exact reason. My own place has been hit by toonie to baseball sized hail twice in 18 years. My dad’s farm was wiped out by the white combine around 1987. So how will hundreds of millions of dollars of solar panels hold up when the inevitable happens? This array is supposed to pivot vertically to reduce damage, something fixed arrays can’t do. Maybe that’ll help. This particular area in the image has hit hard several years ago by hail. I hope it’s just rain, for the farmers’ sake. If you know what happens, please comment below or let me know.
“How well do large hail and large solar arrays mix?” Not well if the hailstones are especially big:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QvQXTJj8lg
Also depends on how hard the stones are. Soft baseball sized don’t do as much damage as ping pong ball sized jagged edged solid chunks of ice.
Yes, there’s that and other factors as well such as wind speed towards inclined panels.
The question I would ask is “will they rebuild?”.
Two years ago…
https://discoverestevan.com/articles/hail-pounds-into-the-southeast-from-large-wide-ranging-storm
I hope the hail breaks every solar panel, land owner host and insurance provider. Evidently logic and words are impotent against greed and political gain. If it needs to be rocks from the heavens, to smarten people up, bring it on
They are playing with our money.
And our grandchildren money
Just curious … is that the 1oz or the 2oz Toonie-size hail? I’m just trying to compare it to the Trumpie …
https://joehoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Trump-US-Mint-Coin-1200×630.jpg
The sheer engineering genius of putting acre upon acre of glass sheets in a prairie field. Everybody told them the hail gets as big as a baseball. I laughed, when I heard about it.
But they built it anyway.
And that is how you know green energy is a scam, not a plan.
And when the subsidy miners have played out the vein of subsidy? Is that when the Tribal Chief shuts down the gold mine?
The only real consideration for the decision to go ahead is how large the kickbacks for the particular politicians and senior bureaucrats will be. Virtue signalling value is secondary. Whether it works doesn’t even register.
I’m curious as to home much damage was done to the Solar Panels at Yorkdale during the storm a couple days ago.
No one is asking though.
Having lived in that area for a number of years, it is not a good place for a solar farm.
The weather is wild even by Saskatchewan standards – hail, flash flooding, more lightning strikes than anywhere else in the province, high winds and tornados. Plus, due to agriculture, coal mining and coal fired power plants it has a high level of particulates in the air that will coat the panels. (I used to do these air tests when I lived there). In fact, estevan had/has really high rates of childhood asthma, likely due in part to particulates. The only benefit for solar there is estevan has lots of sunshine and slightly less snow.
So purple is hail, not rain? Shouldn’t the song go, “Purple hail, purple hail”?
Hence it’s just … Rainy on a Red Mapette?
Just ask Scottsbluff, Nebraska.