1% of the claims submitted, but more than 50% of the total losses – PV Magazine International

From PV Magazine

A study by Underwriter Gcube Insurance showed that, although hail damage was good for only 1.4% of the insurance claims that had been submitted in the five years prior to the study of American solar projects, which claims had 54% of the total losses on solar zon.

Data from insurer Axis show that the open and closed claims for hail damage between 2019 and 2025 influenced 1.3 million solar modules and 2.7 GW capacity between 2019 and 2025. And these amount to a total gross claim amount of $ 342 million.

Greeting damage is a major problem for the PV industry, especially in the United States, where Axis says that the vast majority of these claims arise. Texas and the Midwest region are very high risk.

“As an industry, we did not expect this problem. Solar grew for the first time in places like California and New Jersey, where there is not much serious hail. The problem has become worse, especially since Solar has grown so much in the US and we see many more projects in regions that are sensitive to Hail Technical Services at Solar Solar Services at Digar -President of Digar -President of Digar -President at Digar -Presie Solar Services at Solar Solar FDE Americas.

Apart from the location, technological trends have contributed to the problem. Modules that are used in large -scale projects have increased in size, because manufacturers are chasing economies in shipping and materials, and this leaves a larger surface for hail to attack, and a greater chance that an individual module will be hit and damaged.

Manufacturers have also started using glass panels on both sides of modules, instead of glass front and a polymer rear image. This requires the use of thinner glass, which is usually “heated” instead of fully tempered. Previtali estimates that 3.2 mm fully tempered glass is about twice as resistant to hail effects as the 2 mm heat -strengthened glass that is now used in many panels. There are processes to fully temper the glass, as thin as 2 mm, which means that it is probably more resistant to damage caused by hail, but problems of costs and technology transfer have so far been made of mainstream use in the solar industry.

Faced with the damage caused by Hagel in recent years, companies from the American solar -supply chain work together to develop solutions and to ensure that they are adopted as broadly as possible. For modules that are installed on fixed striker systems or roofs, stronger glass is perhaps the most practical solution. But because a large part of the land mounted solar energy in the United States is built on trackers, there is another option.

Get storage

Storage greetings, whereby the tracker shifts the modules to a high angle to declare hail effects and to reduce the glass area that is affected, has proved that the damage to PV modules reduces. “Where we have seen hail damage, the most common factor is the lack of reliable hail monitoring and a storage function. Even the least resistant modules, if you place them in a hail position, you can avoid a considerable amount of damage,” said Previtali.

Tracker Maker Nexpracker offers its Hagel Pro solution to customers, including hardware that makes fast storage in a corner of up to 75 degrees on both sides, and software that can connect to weather forecasting services from third parties to save automatically when Hagel is predicted or other conditions are met. With this, operators can also initiate in both directions with a single click.

Previous trackers were usually stored for hail in a corner of 60 degrees. Alex Roedel, VP Design and Engineering at Nexpracker explained that the extra rotation rotation is the result of increasing research and cooperation between independent engineering firms, testing laboratories, project developers and others along the value chain of the solar project.

“75 degrees was not a number that was chosen from the air. We have done rigorous laboratory tests and hail damage risk analysis to be able to say that this is the right angle that we believe is our tracker system as well as risk reduction for the module in balance,” Roedel said.

According to Roedel, manufacturers of modules are particularly happy to work together on hail protection and see the work on the tracker side doing when helping to open more design and material options for them. He sees some market correction, where manufacturers opt for stronger frames and slightly thicker glass, and some specific marketing modules such as hail -resistant, but the module prices are still low and manufacturers have very strong cost limits. “It will be this combination of technologies. You can overcorrect and go to 4 mm to 5 mm glass. Or you can combine it with a smart system that goes under a high angle. Because manufacturers of modules do not want to replace a race to the bottom with a race to the top, where their product costs go through the roof.”

Triple threat

For some trackers, high-angle can store for hail conflicting with strategies for other extreme weather, such as strong wind or floods, where a horizontal or wind-oriented position can be preferred. But not where those circumstances are accompanied by hail with a large diameter.

Here trackers can use more robust designs and raised wind damping so that the structure can withstand stronger winds, so that the storage position remains open to hail protection. “We are designing for all these different simultaneous scenarios. We would never release a situation in which you relate to conflicting checks and software functionality. We want a system designed for both scenarios of winds that change direction and hail or some of these other events that occur,” said Roodel.

Andrew Griffiths, VP Asset Management at NexPracker, added that the Hil Pro trackers of the company include “360 -degree” wind protection, which means that the tracker is designed and justified to store safely in each direction, focused in or away from the wind.

Experts say that industry is increasingly taking note of the risk of hail and other extreme weather events and the implementation of mitigation measures in projects from the start, even when this means extra costs. “There are some extra costs, in the hardware and in subscribing to reliable weather forecasts, but the juice is worth squeezing when you consider the damage that can occur differently. Every owner or operator of Smart System does this now,” said Roedel.

Previtali agreed that industry is increasingly acquainting with extreme weather risks. “The project planners are often very hopeful that they are not going to hail on their site, and they do not want to spend the extra money to set up hail monitoring and storage functionality. But the tide turns that, and I would say that at least 50% of the projects are being developed now know that they should take hail, etc. in a consideration,” he said.

Previtali added that he sees many existing projects that want to find out the hail restriction. In most cases, where trackers are already in use, this can be done by accepting new software without the need for physical retrofit. Occasionally, projects that are built to store horizontally in strong wind conditions can require the addition of more structural elements and dampers, which are usually available from tracker manufacturers.

Insurance trends

Insurance providers have also played a key role in the increased cooperation between the players in the industry, and show the willingness to invoice a hail risk and mitigation measures in their cost models. “The risk is never zero, but what we see is that an effective hail message protocol can reduce hail losses for typical utility scale projects from at least $ 50 million to less than $ 5 million,” said Previtali.

He pointed out that VDE has seen situations in which one project suffered serious hail damage, while others affected by the same storm escaped relatively unscathed – which proved the effectiveness of stopping. VDE has collaborated with insurance provider KWH Analytics to ensure that it can get the right information about the defense strategies of a Hail project and offers a cheaper insurance where proven mitigation is properly implemented. “That is a very new concept that we hope will also accept other insurance providers,” he said.

Nexpracker’s Griffiths agreed and noted that a few years ago, as one project was hit by Hagel, projects in the neighborhood often saw higher insurance premiums. But that is no longer increasingly the case. “Insurers, as a result of this collaboration between manufacturers of equipment, module manufacturers, developers and weather forecasters. They can call those risk factors locally to what the actual project will see,” he explained.

Roedel also sees cooperation and rapid progress made in reducing hail damage as proof of the general resilience of the solar industry.

“It is a completely different world than it was a few years ago where everyone is just terrified of Hagel. We are now starting to prove that we can solve the right technologies for every risk. And that is a brilliant thing,” he concluded.