Hail damage to solar farms

Fort Bend County, Texas, March 2024: a hailstorm crosses Fighting Jays Solar, a plant of several hundred megawatts, and photos of thousands of shattered modules circulate across the industry. Back in 2019, Midway Solar in West Texas had lost a large share of its panels to very large hailstones, in a loss of several tens of millions of dollars. Ground-mounted solar had been underwritten as a quiet risk: few moving parts, no fuel, frequency losses. Hail turned it into a peak risk. According to studies published by the market, it accounts for a majority of insured photovoltaic losses while making up a small share of claims. The mechanism lies in the glass. Modules are certified against 25 mm ice balls; hailstones several centimeters across break them, and microcracked cells lose output without anything showing. Insurers responded through the wording: hail sublimits per occurrence, deductibles set as a percentage of insured value in exposed zones, and exclusion of output loss without visible breakage. On the prevention side, tracker plants can tilt their rows almost vertical as a storm approaches (hail stow), which reduces impact energy. Underwriters now ask for the stow strategy, the trigger time, who decides (automatic alert or operator), the glass thickness, and the zone's hail frequency drawn from severe convective storm models. A tracker left flat for lack of an alert is rated like a fixed-tilt installation. For reinsurers, solar hail adds to the secondary perils whose loss experience keeps rising. Not to be confused with windstorm, which tears off structures and trackers; hail breaks the glass and leaves the frame standing.