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Comment by smaddox | Hacker News Reader

Maybe... But a single drone could much more easily put a coal, oil, or natural gas power plant out of commission. How is this relevant?

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I mean, seriously, it sounds like the opposite. The events in Saudi Arabia have shown how much more vulnerable oil is, with the production pipeline going through much smaller (in terms of m^2) bottlenecks.

You could wipe out millions of gallons/day of production with a well-placed strike, affecting the entire global market, while solar farms are much bigger (a hit will wipe out a smaller percentage) and the effects are more localized.

It would be too easy for electro-terrorists to stop production at the solar park: four drones (one on each corner) could simply airlift a rectangular 3x4 mile opaque tarp from Sudan or outer space and drop it over the panels. Probably only take 15 minutes. Drones and tarps are available for a low price on Amazon. This is a scary possibility. Egypt must fund anti-drone defenses today!

You need to delete this comment before the terrorists find out about this possibility.

At the risk of spoiling the joke, just curious about how powerful the drones will have to be...

https://www.tarpsplus.com/blue-poly-tarp-sold-individually.h...

"3.5 oz. Per Square Yrd."

  You have: 3 mi 4 mi 3.5 oz/yd^2
  You want: kg
   * 3688250.3

So each drone should be able to lift about a gigagram.

(Also, this plastic doesn't have enough tensile strength to support its own weight when lifted from the corners.)

Good point! The plan needs refinement.

I guess they could break the job down: use one team of 4 drones to lift multiple 1 square yard tarps.

Let's see, 12 square miles is roughly 37 million square yards. Multiplying by four they would only need about 150 million drones. Quite affordable for today's well-funded terrorist with an Amazon Prime account (as long as they choose 3-5 business day shipping instead of overnight).

The standard approach, as was used in Iraq, is to dispense foil streamers or other conductive chaff over the substations. The US used airplanes, but these days drones could do the job. Or you could use a drone to tow a copper wire across one of the high-voltage distribution power lines. If done on enough lines at the same time the sudden decrease in load may cause the generators to overspeed.

The Weapon that Disabled Iraq’s Power Grid

https://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/the-weapon-that-d...

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