From skyrocketing premiums to a lack of coverage in flood, hurricane and fire-prone locations, the insurance industry has become the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis. In 2023, there was a record-breaking number of natural disasters that caused over $1 billion in insurance losses. While often a scapegoat, insurance companies have both been shielding us from the true costs of climate change and pushing us to develop new technologies to mitigate the risks. One such example that has recently been in the news, especially in relation to solar energy, is hailstorms. And while some of the criticism has been cynical and baseless, rising insurance costs pose a real risk to the financial viability of PV systems.
Out of the different types of extreme weather, hail causes the largest amount of property damage, up to $14 billion per year according to the Insurance Information Institute. That’s compared to only $14 billion for tornadoes per decade. A recent GCube Insurance report shows that hail claims now average around $58.4 million per claim and account for 54.21% of incurred costs of total solar loss claims. And hailstorms are potentially becoming more powerful due to climate change. Scientists hypothesize that while climate change may decrease the frequency of hail, it may increase the size of hailstones because a warming atmosphere is more unstable, holds more moisture and causes stronger updrafts. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center shows a 17% increase of very large hailstones of two or more inches from 2021 to 2022, and a continued increase from 2022 to 2023 according to preliminary data.
Unfortunately, the Great Plains and the Central High Plains, which are ideal for utility-scale PV plants, are also known as Hail Alley since they are notorious for large hailstones. Earlier this year, a hailstorm damaged a 350-MW PV plant in Texas that significantly raised awareness of this risk. Since most traditional solar modules are unable to survive a major hailstorm and would likely need to be replaced, this has caused the insurance industry to reconsider its cost-risk analysis of insuring large PV plants located in Hail Alley, which may render them financially unfeasible or even completely uninsurable. Without technological innovation, this poses a significant risk to the energy transition.
But the solar industry, which is continually overcoming new challenges, is always quick to respond with new innovations, creative ideas and interdisciplinary technologies. That’s what we did at LONGi when we developed our new Ice-Shield module, specifically designed for durability and reliability in the face of increasing frequency and strength of extreme weather events. We took a complete approach to developing a durable and reliable module so asset owners and insurance companies alike would feel confident in our modules’ long-term production and reliability.
First, we wanted to leverage financially scalable and easily manufacturable technology to strengthen our solar modules to maintain cost-efficiency. We needed a material that could withstand large hailstones since Hail Alley is prone to hailstones that range from approximately 45-mm to 55-mm in diameter. Just like the solar and storage market has benefited from the economies of scale of lithium-ion batteries in our everyday electronics, we understood that the tempered glass we all use as screen protectors on our cell phones could be adapted to guard modules from hailstones. While mainstream PV modules that use 2-mm of heat-strengthened glass on the front are likely to fail from a strike from a hailstone that is more than 25-mm to 35-mm in diameter, our new module, which incorporates a 3.2-mm top layer of toughened safety glass technology, not only withstands up to a 55-mm hailstone (approximately the size of a billiard ball) striking at a velocity of approximately 75 mph, but also stays intact and experiences almost no power degradation. To further reduce the risk of hailstorm damage, combining the hail resistant module with a solar tracker’s hail-stow-feature would improve the survivability of modules during a strong hailstorm. But severe convective storms don’t only produce hailstones, they are also accompanied by strong winds.
As the main load-bearing component, the frame of our new module is reinforced with 6005-T6 high-strength anodized aluminum alloy material and an excellent frame design that enables our module to withstand up to 3,600Pa wind loads with mainstream trackers, equal to 171.33 mph winds.
While the solar module is often incorrectly considered a commodity, it is also the most recognizable and visible part of any PV system. The advancements of the solar module, from increases in cell efficiency to half-cell module design for improved shading tolerance, are often overlooked but they continue to push the industry forward and are responsible for overcoming some of the toughest challenges faced to date.
Alyssa Huang is the Product Solutions Manager at LONGi Solar, supporting product marketing and pre-sales product consultation for the North America region. Alyssa has worked in the solar industry since 2016 starting as PV system designer and obtained the NABCEP PV Design Specialist certification. She obtained Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering at UC San Diego and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
