North Carolina
How Hurricane Helene Disrupted the Solar Industry’s Fragile Supply Chain
Hurricane Helene's closure of two essential quartz mines in North Carolina reveals the precarity of the solar energy product pipeline.
Due to a quirk of geology, the purest quartz in all the world comes from the picturesque town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The mineral, created deep within the earth when silicon-rich magmas cooled and crystallized some 370 million years ago, is e... [7130 chars]