[RE-wrenches] Hailstorm damage

[Will White]

I’ve seen photos from one of the leasing companies of arrays right next to a golf course that got multiple ball strikes.  They were having to constantly replace modules which lead to a rule of no arrays within some number of feet from a course.  I think it was 300’.


From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Jason Szumlanski
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2015 8:09 AM
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Hailstorm damage

Not to hijack the thread, but the timing is perfect for another related question I had. A client approached me about putting solar panels on a golf course maintenance building. The pitch is 2 in 12 and the location is supposedly not in the typical direction/are where golf balls are likely to be hit (most likely because I don't have a membership there). The question will naturally come up about golf ball strikes. We have several systems along fairways on residences and have not had any reported issues. Does anyone else have systems in the cross-hairs of errant golf balls? If so, any feedback on resistance to strikes?

​Jason Szumlanski​
​​Florida Solar Design Group​


On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 1:47 AM, Allan Sindelar <allan at sindelarsolar.com<mailto:allan at sindelarsolar.com>> wrote:
Wrenches,
From time to time I see posts about hail damage. The message below was sent internally among Positive Energy's three offices, and I thought worth sharing here.
Allan, Sindelar Solar

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:

Big hailstorm in LC

Date:

Tue, 6 Oct 2015 08:04:14 -0600


Hi all,
We had a big hail storm in Las Cruces on Saturday.  Because so many potential clients ask about how solar panels hold up to hail, I thought that I would share a bit of what we found.

The hail that was falling was about golf ball sized.  I have seen a picture of a hailstone next to a tape measure that was about an inch and a half in diameter.  On the install that we started yesterday, all of the customer's skylights (about 6) were busted out; not just cracked, but with big holes punched through them.  Several of our clients called to tell us that their skylights were destroyed, but their solar panels were undamaged.  We went up onto roofs for four of our clients that are out of town and found no damage to the PV arrays.

We have only one report of a damaged panel, which you can see in the attached photos.  This was a unique installation, because the modules are mounted flat on a nominally flat roof, so they have about two degrees of pitch.  That means that the hailstones hit almost perpendicular, so with more force.  Even at this installation, only one 1 out of 15 modules was damaged.  This is a Suntech module.

All in all, our modules fared well.  To my knowledge, this is only the second time that a module installed by Positive Energy has been damaged by hail.  The first time was in Taos a few years ago.
Cheers,
Westbrock
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 7:19 PM
Subject: Broken Panel

Here is what the panel looks like! It is just like safety glass, the entire panel is shattered.
Bob

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