Solar Panels Survive Tornado in Colorado

Designed to draw on nature's goodness, certain solar installations are also sturdy enough to withstand some of its most malevolent wrath.

The latest success story comes from around Windsor, Colorado, where last week a Class F3 tornado swept through the northern part of state at speeds of nearly 150 mph. Leaving a three-quarter-mile-wide, 35-mile-long path, the storm ravaged roughly 750 homes and businesses. Only one set of structures remained standing - an array of three 10-killowatt solar systems from Bella Energy. According to Solar Daily, the ground mounted system is not only the state's largest residential solar electric scheme, but also the strongest, surviving "150 mph winds while telephone poles nearby snapped like toothpicks. And no flying panels either! Solar Panels tipped at an angle can catch the wind like a sail, but these remained intact, producing power."

"After the storm I had to say to Bella Energy that they were right. Those panels didn't blow away even in a tornado!" said one homeowner. "Our power from the utility grid is down because the tornado took out the electricity poles, but the solar systems were still in operation."