Research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory suggests hail-cracked panels have less than four percent energy loss. . Thousands of panels on a solar farm southwest of Houston, Texas, were damaged by a powerful hailstorm on March 15. In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in October 2024, footage of solar projects ravaged by tornadoes spread across social media, raising questions about PV's resilience to extreme weather. In a PV Tech feature article, VDE Americas' president and co-founder, John Sedgwick, shares lessons learned from. . Utility-Scale Solar Can Withstand Severe Hailstorms. As Texas becomes the country's leader in generating solar power, the. . Thousands of solar panels were shattered when a storm dropped golf ball-sized hail on a 3,300-acre, 350 MW utility-scale project in suburban Houston early last year. Production fell sharply for three months until crews restored operations. This kind of damage isn't unusual anymore.
[PDF Version]
