[RE-wrenches] Hurricane damage to solar arrays

Brian Teitelbaum bteitelbaum at aeesolar.com
Wed Sep 13 15:49:01 PDT 2017


Thanks for the early report Jason. Be safe down there.

I would be cautious about those modules that were so violently tossed
about, even if the glass is intact. They may be full of cell micro fractures

It would be interesting if we had IR images of working arrays from before
and after a huge wind event like that, to see if there is any degradation
of output. Maybe there are enough monitored systems with historical data
now to see the effects, if any.

Brian Teitelbaum
AEE Solar

On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 3:18 PM, Jason Szumlanski <
jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com> wrote:

> I'm based in Fort Myers and we cover the hardest hit areas from Irma. We
> are in the "stuff" right now, so I'll make this brief until I have more
> time, which might be a while. We are seeing quite a bit of minor damage and
> some major damage. We're getting calls from all dealers' customers and a
> couple of our own clients. We have several homes with one or two panels
> dislodged. There is no rhyme or reason. Some are middle of arrays, some on
> edges. Panels are ripped right off rails, leads ripped from microinverters.
> Strangely, it looks like the panel j-box connection and MC4 connectors
> survived better than the microinverter end of the DC leads. Amazingly, we
> have several panels that were blown onto driveways, other roofs, and pool
> cages with NO DAMAGE except frame scrapes. Very weird. We haven't seen a
> shattered panel yet, but it's early.
>
> I'm heading to a self-storage facility tomorrow where there are three 25kw
> systems on different buildings. Two buildings are unscathed. One building
> lost ALL of the panels apparently. Tornado? Hard to say.
>
> So far (other than the 25kw I have not evaluated) we have not seen a
> single fastener pulled out. All of the failures are panel top and mid
> clamps at this time. Anchor and rails remain intact. Possibly installation
> errors? Possibly sheared off T-bolts? Hard to tell and we may never fully
> know.
>
> We generally require 48 inch spacing between anchors into trusses for
> engineered systems. The pullout values are pretty high. It looks like the
> attachment points into the roof are not going to be the failure point in
> the systems in Florida, but there is a LOT of work to be done still. It's
> going to be a very interesting few months ahead!
>
>
> ​Jason Szumlanski
> Florida Solar Design Group​
>>
> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 3:09 PM, James Rudolph <jamesrudolph99 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Aloha Everyone,
>> I was just wondering how all the PV arrays did during these storms?
>> Does Florida have higher pull out values and wind designs for their
>> PV/H20 systems?
>> Is there any thing the rest of us could learn from all this?
>> Photos?
>>
>>
>> Mahalo Nui Loa,
>>
>>
>> *James B. Rudolph*
>>
>> *Hawaii Unified*
>>
>> *Director of Energy*
>>
>> *ES Electrician # 10816*
>>
>> *NABCEP Certified PV Installer # 091209-155*
>>
>> *80*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Brian Teitelbaum
Application Engineer
AEE Solar, Inc.
Redway, CA
Tel: (805) 242-7856
Toll Free 1-800-777-6609 ext 7856
bteitelbaum at aeesolar.com
www.aeesolar.com
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