CHOWCHILLA, California — What happens if you install solar panels directly on the ground and then subject them to a wild and wet California winter replete with 12 atmospheric rivers, two bomb cyclones and 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts? I visited a Central California solar farm built by the startup Erthos to find out. The company uses a proprietary hole pattern to allow electrical connections to reach its modules, as well as a unique system of threading the cables to provide a supportive mesh that conforms to the contours of the land. Visiting the startup’s Chowchilla site didn’t necessarily convince me that its unheard-of approach is bulletproof, but it did demonstrate that the company’s facilities share one important trait with the scores of other installations I’ve visited over more than a decade of reporting: It’s kind of boring