Hail can cause significant damage to solar installations and is the main cause of half of insured project losses, according to risk expert VDE Americas. Although hail cannot be avoided, damage can be prevented by tilting the solar panels on a tracker, also called stowing, and turning the modules away from the hail.
FTC Solar, a Texas-based solar tracker specialist, has introduced the Automated Hail Stow Solution. It uses meteorological data to automatically stow solar panels when there is a hailstorm on the horizon.
After working with VDE Americas to study the impact of hail events on solar installations, FTC Solar developed a hail storage strategy that positions solar panels to minimize the impact of direct hail and wind.
The automated hail storage solution integrates with FTC Solar’s Sunops, a cloud-based PV asset monitoring solution designed to manage and improve solar performance. FTC reports that the software takes into account factors such as advanced tracking algorithms and appropriate tracker storage for extreme weather conditions.
Ken Kozizki, chief marketing officer for FTC Solar, said pv magazine USA that the tracker moves quickly into a hailstorm of >50 degrees with the modules facing away from the wind in response to the meteorological forecast data. The hailstow algorithm is powered by meteorological data the FTC receives from a leading third-party vendor, and weather conditions are analyzed using multiple radars that combine to create an accurate forecast for a single location.
There is also a feature that allows the plant manager to manually go to the nearest high-angle store to further reduce storage time, Kozizki said. Damage thresholds can also be adjusted based on risk appetite and site location, including factors such as hail size, probability and radius.
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