WHEATFIELD, Ind. -- ABC57 reached out to NIPSCO following Tuesday's severe weather which caused outages across their service area and damaged Dunns Bridge I and Dunns Bridge II solar farms in Starke and Jasper Counties.

NIPSCO released the following statement:

"On the evening of March 10, while actively monitoring severe weather and responding to storm‑related outages across our service area, NIPSCO became aware of damage to its Dunns Bridge I and Dunns Bridge II solar facilities in Starke and Jasper counties. Our team was tracking the storm in real time and moved in to assess conditions and respond as soon as it was safe to do so. Debris from the damage could have been displaced, and we are working to safely secure the area, assess the damage and proactively communicate with the community.

We recognize there may be questions and concerns about potential environmental impacts related to the damage at the solar farm. Solar panel leaching concerns have been thoroughly evaluated in industry-leading research, which shows that the risk is extremely low. Overall, the available evidence demonstrates that both crystalline silicon and thin-film PV (i.e., photovoltaic) modules do not pose a meaningful risk of environmental or human exposure from leaching, even when damaged.

Many of our customers in Starke and Jasper counties are dealing with storm damage, and we’re working to safely support them. If you see potential solar panel debris, please call 1-800-464-7726 and provide your address or a nearby address, along with a description of what you see so our team can follow up."

When asked where the solar farms supply power to, a spokesperson for NIPSCO stated, "Our generation assets feed into the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) system and it's dispatched through them."