Leave intellectual pygmies in charge, and weather-dependent wind and solar is what you get. However, not only does their output depend entirely on the weather and/or where the Sun sits in the sky, wind and solar’s capacity to (occasionally) generate power can be eradicated in a matter of minutes.
A few hailstones from the heavens make short work of solar panels. Typhoons, cyclones, hurricanes and tornadoes readily wipe out both solar panels and wind turbines, leaving nothing but expensive wreckage in their path.
In the latter case, twisters will strip the 20 tonne blades from a turbine as if plucking the leaves from a flower and/or flatten the whole shebang in seconds (see the video above).
Proving, once again, how utterly ridiculous solar power is, the twisters that followed in the wake of Hurricane Milton have pounded large-scale solar plants across Florida, including this one.
Drone footage shows destruction left by tornado ripping through Florida solar farm before Milton
USA Today
Mary Walrath-Holdridge
15 October 2024
Drone footage taken after tornados spawned by Hurricane Milton hit the U.S. last week captured a prime example of just how destructive a twister can be.
The footage, shared by North Carolina-based power and gas company Duke Energy, showed the damage left behind in a field of Florida solar panels. In the video, taken Oct. 10 at the Lake Placid Solar Power Plant in Sylvan Shores, a clear path of destruction can be seen snaking through the middle of the field where the twister passed over.
Amid the thousands of still-standing panels, which generate enough energy to power 12,000 households [except at night and during cloudy and inclement weather], , a diagonal line of metal debris can be seen stretching almost completely across one plot of the facility, leaving behind empty rows of scrap.
Highlands County, where the solar farm is located, reported at least one person injured after the tornado severely damaged the Tropical Harbor Mobile Home Park on Wednesday ahead of Milton, reported Fox 13 News.
As of Tuesday, Duke Energy’s outage map reported 46,809 Florida customers still without power.
In total, more than 400,000 people in the state are still in the dark as emergency responders grapple with widespread outages and gas shortages.
USA Today
STOP THESE THINGS 
About fifty years ago I worked with a colleague to model the effects of a tornado picking up a telephone pole or Volkswagen and hurling it at a nuclear power plant’s containment dome. Even though we didn’t have any in-situ validation, we were pretty sure the conclusions were accurate: No damage.
No doubt many tons of glass coated with dangerous, indeed poisonous, chemicals were also scattered over a wide area. The debris will have extended far beyond the solar farm site boundaries.
Are these installations insurable?
Do operators have to clean up to a good standard so cadmium poisoning does not occur and ground water is not polluted.