[ben_w]

> Is there some kind of new glass?

Yes, every other year thanks to the phone market.

We also have transparent aluminium (oxynitride) now.

Not there this should be a particularly hard challenge relative to "people live in these places, do their roofs and windows survive?" (even if you have to use shutters, NDB, do that for the PV also).

There's also the option to have transmission lines and can put the panels elsewhere in the places without whatever… and they already exist and are in place: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wide_area_synchronou...

[ttfkam]

> Yes, every other year thanks to the phone market.

Whew! That's a relief. Too bad about those phone repair outlets though that are basically out of a job due to these unbreakable screens.

> There's also the option to have transmission lines and can put the panels elsewhere in the places without whatever… and they already exist and are in place

That hailstorm that destroyed the solar farm in Nebraska? Yea, that was just last month. You have a very odd impression of the state of the US power grid and its current power production let alone most places in the world. I wish I had your optimism.

[ben_w]

> [snip sarcasm]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride

> That hailstorm that destroyed the solar farm in Nebraska

I had to look that one up, because Nebraska has about x3 as much capacity in HVDC converter stations from the 70s and 80s as it does total statewide grid-connected PV (which is one of my points, the one I can rephrase as "put it elsewhere if it's really that bad").

> The Scottsbluff project features […] hail stow capabilities from Array Technologies. While it's unclear if the asset's hail stow program was activated during the weather event, damage to the face of the modules indicates it was not.

- https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/solar-farm-pelted...

So again, like I said, solutions are known, even if not actually used.