Understanding Hail Damage to Solar Panels: Visible and Invisible Risks

When it comes to solar panels, one of the common environmental risks often overlooked is hail damage. While most homeowners and businesses understand the impact of extreme weather on rooftops, they may not realize how hail can affect solar panels—especially in ways that aren’t immediately visible.

What is Hail Damage to Solar Panels?

Solar panels are built to withstand a variety of environmental conditions, including hailstorms. However, larger hailstones can cause significant damage. While it's easy to spot cracked or shattered panels due to visible damage, the more concerning issue is invisible damage.

Invisible Damage: A Hidden Threat

Invisible damage occurs when hailstones—often those larger than 3 cm in diameter—hit the panels, causing micro-cracks in the photovoltaic (PV) cells. These micro-cracks are not visible to the naked eye but can result in a substantial decline in the panel's performance over time. The reduced efficiency can go unnoticed until energy production drops significantly.

Research from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2019 highlights the vulnerability of solar panels to hailstorms. Their analysis found that panels subjected to larger hailstones showed both visible and invisible damage, the latter being a hidden concern for long-term performance.

How Do You Identify Invisible Damage?

Regular visual inspections of solar panels may not reveal these micro-cracks. To detect them, advanced inspection methods such as Electroluminescence (EL) imaging are required. EL imaging helps identify tiny cracks within the solar cells, allowing for early detection of performance issues before they escalate.

In fact, as seen in recent analysis by PVinsight RSA, a solar panel may appear perfectly fine during a visual inspection but may show significant cracks through EL images. This method shows the extent of invisible damage that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Why Does Invisible Damage Matter?

Invisible damage reduces the panel's ability to generate power efficiently. Even minor cracks can impact energy production, leading to a loss of output. Over time, the panel's performance declines, resulting in lower returns on investment for solar energy systems.

For businesses and homeowners, regular professional inspections, particularly after hailstorms, are crucial to maintaining the long-term efficiency of solar panels. Without identifying and addressing invisible damage, energy production could be compromised, and repairs might become more costly later on.

Protect Your Solar Investment

At Citizen Solar, we emphasize the importance of manufacturing high-quality solar panels that are resilient to environmental risks, including hail damage. Our commitment to durability ensures that our products can withstand challenging conditions, protecting your investment in solar energy.

We also advocate for regular maintenance and advanced inspections to guarantee the longevity and efficiency of solar panels. By staying proactive, you can safeguard your solar energy system from the unseen dangers of hail damage.

Key Takeaways

• Larger hailstones can cause both visible and invisible damage to solar panels.
• Invisible damage, often undetectable by the naked eye, reduces energy efficiency.
• Advanced techniques like Electroluminescence (EL) imaging are necessary for identifying micro-cracks.
• Regular inspections after hailstorms can protect your solar investment.