Image shows solar panels damaged by US hailstorm, not heavy South Korea snow

"Moon Jae-in's greatest achievement -- solar farms, utterly destroyed by massive snowfall," read a Korean-language Facebook post on December 2, 2024.

The post included a picture of solar panels covered in white pockmarks. 

The claim was shared after heavy snowfall blanketed much of South Korea on November 27, killing three people and disrupting flights and ferry services (archived link).

Image

Screenshot of the false post shared on Facebook. Captured December 3, 2024

Identical claims were shared elsewhere on Facebook here, here and here. 

Under Moon's leadership, the country quadrupled its supply of solar power as part of a pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 (archived link).

The expansion was also met with criticism about the farms' susceptibility to natural disasters such as landslides (archived link).

But AFP found no official reports about solar farms damaged by the heavy snowfall that hit South Korea in late November.

The image shared in the posts previously circulated in news reports about a solar farm in Texas damaged by hail in March.

Texas hailstorm

A combination of Google reverse image and keyword searches found a matching image published in a report by Fox26 -- an affiliate of the US-based Fox News -- from March 22, 2024, about a solar farm damaged in a heavy hailstorm in Needville, Texas (archived link).

The image shows panels in a 4,000-acre solar farm named Fighting Jays Solar that took a beating by the hail, according to a separate Fox26 report that also carried the same image (archived link).

Both reports include video footage of the Houston-area solar farm battered by hail, which left many panels broken and pockmarked.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the original image published by Fox26 (right):

Image

Screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the original image published by Fox26 (right)

Fighting Jays is a solar project located in Fort Bend County, Texas that became operational in July 2022, according to its official website (archived link).

Google Maps Street View imagery of the address provided on the website showed solar panel installations in the area (archived link).

The damage weathered by the solar farm in Fort Bend was also widely reported by other local news organisations, including Newsweek and ABC 13 (archived links here and here).

AFP previously debunked similar posts that shared photos of damaged solar farms out of context, including here, here and here, which also placed the blame on Moon's solar policy.