Sunshine Not The Only Weather Impact For Growing Solar Industry

The United States aims to achieve net zero carbon pollution by 2050, and as part of this effort, there is a strong focus on rapidly expanding renewable energy capacity, with solar energy leading the way as the fastest-growing source of electricity in 2022 according to CNN. However, the growth of this industry also introduces new risks associated with extreme weather events. Data from GCube Insurance Services reveals that over 70% of solar losses in the past decade occurred since 2017, highlighting the surge in solar module damage due to the combination of rapid solar development and an increase in extreme weather events.

While hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, wildfires, and hailstorms all present risks to solar farms, hailstorms have emerged as the costliest weather event for the solar industry in terms of asset damage and lossSolar Power World reports that hailstorms in Texas during the summer of 2022 caused over $300 million in damage to solar fields, which is ten times more expensive than the damage caused by Hurricane Hanna in 2020. The destructive power of hailstorms was demonstrated when baseball-sized hail struck a solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, with estimated speeds of 100-150 mph, resulting in the complete destruction of the entire farm (source).

Understanding Hail Formation

Hail is a fascinating weather phenomenon that occurs when raindrops are lifted by strong thunderstorm updrafts into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere, causing them to freeze. The hailstones grow as they collide with liquid water drops, which freeze onto the stones and increase their size. When the hailstones become too heavy for the storm’s updraft or the storm weakens, gravity takes over and the hail finally falls to the ground.

However, specific conditions are required for hail to form within storms. While Florida experiences a high number of thunderstorms, it rarely sees large hail due to the freezing level of the atmosphere being too high to support the formation of large hailstones (although it does occasionally happen, as seen in the case of baseball-sized hail in April in parts of the state(source). Hail Alley, located where Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska meet, experiences the highest number of hailstorms in the United States, with an average of seven to nine hail days per year, as reported by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (source).

Deciding to Stow or Not to Stow

While advancements in technology and machine learning modeling have made it easier to forecast hailstorms, accurately predicting the timing and size of hail remains a challenge. Therefore, it is crucial to closely monitor weather forecasts and storm paths on days with a high potential for storms. Solar operators have the option to put their panels into a “hail stow” mode, where trackers tilt the panels at an angle that reduces the impact energy of hailstones. Horizontal tracker-mounted solar panels are particularly vulnerable to hail damage, as they are in the most exposed position during solar noon, which can result in the most damaging hail strikes.

Solar developers rely on various weather sources to make the decision to stow or not to stow, considering both the business costs associated with reduced energy generation and the risks of not stowing. In a notable example, solar developers in Texas chose not to stow their panels in 2019 and suffered losses exceeding $70 million(source).

Solar operators and site managers rely on convective outlooks from the National Severe Storms Prediction Center, storm risk maps, storm corridors, and enterprise weather services to plan for hailstorms. Radar networks provide essential information on the potential for hail, enabling the tracking of storms and their estimated hail size up to the solar farmFollow Google News

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