From sky-high premiums to a lack of coverage in flood-, hurricane- and fire-prone locations, the insurance industry has become the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis. 2023 saw a record number of natural disasters causing more than $1 billion in insurance losses. Although insurance companies are often scapegoated, they have protected us from the real costs of climate change and pushed us to develop new technologies to reduce risks. An example of this that has been in the news recently, especially in relation to solar energy, is hailstorms. And while some of the criticism is cynical and unfounded, rising insurance costs pose a real risk to the financial viability of PV systems.
Of the different types of extreme weather, hail causes the most property damage, up to $14 billion per year according to the Institute for Insurance Information. That’s compared to just $14 billion for tornadoes per decade. A recent report from GCUbe Insurance shows that hail claims now average around $58.4 million per claim and represent 54.21% of the incurred costs of total solar claims. And hailstorms are potentially becoming more powerful as a result of climate change. Scientists hypothesize that while climate change may reduce the frequency of hail, it could increase the size of hailstones because a warming atmosphere is more unstable, retains more moisture and creates stronger updrafts. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center shows a 17% increase in very large hailstones of five or more centimeters between 2021 and 2022, and a continued increase between 2022 and 2023 according to preliminary data.
Unfortunately, the Great Plains and the Central High Plains, which are ideal for large-scale PV installations, are also known as Hail Alley because they are notorious for large hailstones. Earlier this year, a hailstorm damaged a 350 MW PV facility in Texas, significantly raising awareness of this risk. Since most traditional solar panels cannot survive a major hailstorm and will likely need to be replaced, this has led the insurance industry to reconsider its cost-risk analysis of insuring large PV installations in Hail Alley, making them financially unfeasible or even unfeasible. could be. even completely uninsurable. Without technological innovation, this poses a significant risk to the energy transition.
But the solar industry, constantly overcoming new challenges, always responds quickly with new innovations, creative ideas and interdisciplinary technologies. That’s what we did at LONGi when we developed our new Ice-Shield module, specifically designed for durability and reliability in the face of the increasing frequency and strength of extreme weather events. We have taken a comprehensive approach to developing a sustainable and reliable module, so that both asset owners and insurance companies can have confidence in the long-term production and reliability of our modules.
First, we wanted to deploy financially scalable and easy-to-manufacture technology to strengthen our solar panels and thus maintain cost efficiency. We needed a material that could withstand large hailstones as Hail Alley is prone to hailstones with a diameter of approximately 45mm to 55mm. Just as the solar and storage market has benefited from the economies of scale of lithium-ion batteries in our everyday electronics, we understood that the tempered glass we all use as screen protectors on our mobile phones could be adapted to protect modules from hailstones. While regular PV modules that use 2mm heat-strengthened glass on the front are likely to fail due to a hailstone with a diameter greater than 25mm to 35mm, our new module, which uses a 3.2-inch top layer of tempered safety glass, can not only withstand a hailstone of up to 55 mm (about the size of a billiard ball) that strikes at a speed of approximately 120 km per hour, but also remains intact and experiences virtually no loss of power. To further reduce the risk of damage from hailstorms, combining the hail-resistant module with the hail storage function of a solar tracker would improve the survivability of modules during a strong hailstorm. But severe convective storms not only produce hailstones, they are also accompanied by strong winds.
As the main load-bearing component, the frame of our new module is reinforced with 6005-T6 high-strength anodized aluminum alloy material and excellent frame design allows our module to withstand wind loads up to 3,600 Pa with regular trackers, equivalent to Wind speed of 171.33 km/h.
Although the solar panel is often wrongly considered a commodity, it is also the most recognizable and visible part of any PV system. Solar module advancements, from increasing cell efficiency to the design of half-cell modules for improved shade tolerance, are often overlooked, but they continue to move the industry forward and are responsible for overcoming some of the toughest challenges we face. have to deal with now.
Alyssa Huang is Product Solutions Manager at LONGi solar energy, supporting product marketing and pre-sales product advice for the North America region. Alyssa has been working in the solar industry since 2016, starting as a PV system designer and achieving NABCEP PV Design Specialist certification. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from UC San Diego and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.
