{"id":436722,"date":"2026-04-02T20:14:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=436722"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:14:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:14:05","slug":"x-weather-shattered-solar-coal-undaunted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=436722","title":{"rendered":"X-Weather Shattered Solar, Coal\u00a0Undaunted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Science Matters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Drone footage shows hundreds of solar panels ripped apart and scattered across farmland after a powerful tornado tore through Wheatfield overnight. Homes in the area also suffered heavy damage as the violent storm carved a path of destruction. Photo credit Joemar Sombero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Energy Bad Boys draw the lessons from an Indiana tornado impacting power supply in their blog article\u00a0Solar Scattered, Coal Still Standing.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an Indiana tornado revealed about the cost of fragile power<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, March 10th,\u00a0an EF-1 tornado destroyed<\/a>\u00a0the Dunns Bridge Solar I and II facilities<\/strong>\u00a0owned by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO). The facilities, located outside of Wheatfield, Indiana, had\u00a02.4 million solar panels<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0totaling 700 megawatts (MW) of power capacity, and reportedly cost $1 billion to construct\u2014a little over $1,400 per kilowatt (kW).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chief Deputy of Jasper County Sheriff\u2019s Department, Brandon Napier,\u00a0noted<\/a>, \u201cJust the path of the\u00a0tornado<\/strong>\u00a0that came through, we have several large solar fields to the east of the town here it\u00a0went right through the solar field and just ripped a lot of them out.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the solar panels were damaged by the tornado, we are\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0aware of\u00a0any<\/strong>\u00a0reports of\u00a0damage at the nearby R.M. Schahfer Generating Station, a 950 MW coal facility<\/strong>\u00a0that NIPSCO was planning to retire at the end of 2025. However, it is\u00a0still running<\/strong>\u00a0thanks to a 202(C) order issued by the U.S. Department of Energy\u00a0(DOE) requiring the plant to continue operations<\/strong>. Click on the map below to explore the custom Google Map we made this week of the facilities.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article will explore the cost<\/strong>\u00a0of the destroyed solar facility compared to the nearby R.M. Schahfer Plant, and explore\u00a0how energy costs have changed<\/strong>\u00a0in the NIPSCO service territory in response to changes in the company\u2019s generation fleet, using some cool data from S&P Global.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to S&P Global<\/a>, the Dunns Bridge solar projects were built to \u201csupport Northern Indiana Public Service\u2019s\u00a0goal of becoming coal-free by 2028,<\/strong>\u00a0reducing carbon emissions by more than 90 percent by 2030, compared to a 2005 baseline, according to the utility.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation begs several questions:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n