(TheProudRepublic.com) – Confirming that every time Mother Nature gets upset everything around her is destroyed, a severe hailstorm damaged thousands of solar panels at a Fort Bend County farm.
ABC 13 reported that the unexpected and intense hailstorm hit the farm and surrounding areas in mid-March and caused extensive property damage. Likewise, neighbors feared potential chemical leaks from the panels.
A resident of Ford Bend County, Nick Kaminski, described the hailstorm as unprecedented. “The hailstorm we experienced Saturday morning was unimaginable. We’ve never seen anything like it in our lifetime,” he told the outlet.
Kaminski recounted damage to his own home from the wind, which resulted in roof damage followed by hail.
Kaminski also expressed concern about the nearby solar farm’s damage stating, “They look like somebody took a shotgun and blasted it into the air and let the pellets fall down and shatter holes all in them.”
Corey Thompson shared a video on Twitter showing aerial footage of the solar farm displaying extensive damage after the hailstorm.
Furthermore, the resident feared that some chemicals from the solar panels might infiltrate the ground and water, posing health risks. “That’s what we take a shower with, we drink with,” he expressed. “It could be in our water now.”
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s National Library of Medicine, solar panels may contain a chemical compound called cadmium telluride. This toxic substance could lead to various health issues if in contact with humans as the NIH lists it as an “Irritant” and an “Environmental Hazard.”
However, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, a physics professor at Rice University involved in solar panel production, suggested that the presence of this substance in a solar panel should not be problematic. “It’s possible you dented the solar panel, but they have a lot of protection layers on top of that.”
“Even if I expose it, it has to get into the groundwater, which means water has to dissolve the cadmium telluride,” he added. “Cadmium telluride does not dissolve in water.”
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