Solar

Solar farm pelted by giant hail as severe storm ripped through Nebraska

Solar farm pelted by giant hail as severe storm ripped through Nebraska
Hail severely damaged a solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on June 23, 2023. (Courtesy: Nebraska Public Power District)

Hail severely damaged a solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on June 23, 2023. (Courtesy: GenPro Energy Solutions)

A solar farm in Nebraska suffered significant hail damage during an extreme weather event that swept through the Great Plains last week.

The 4.375 MWac solar farm in Scottsbluff was damaged on June 23 by the same storm cell that injured eight people at a Wyoming coal mine.

Molly Brown, executive vice president of corporate strategy for GenPro Energy Solutions, which co-developed the project with Sol Systems, said insurance adjustors were onsite June 29 to assess the extent of the damage.

Based on a visual inspection, it appeared that only the solar modules were damaged in the storm, though further testing will be required. It's unclear how long the project will be out of commission.

The Scottsbluff project features more than 14,000 JA Solar 380W modules, Brown said, and utilizes a single-axis tracker system with hail stow capabilities from Array Technologies. While it's unclear if the asset's hail stow program was activated during the weather event, damage to the face of the modules indicates it was not.

Brown believes it's important to note that the extreme weather system caused significant damage to clean and fossil energy assets alike. While storms are indiscriminate, Brown said this is the first major damage GenPro has sustained since its first solar farm was installed in Lexington, Nebraska in 2017.

"We do get a lot of hailstorms in the Great Plains region, but typically the roofs get more damage than the solar panels.," Brown told Renewable Energy World.

This is only GenPro's second insurance claim on a solar array, and the first involved just five modules.

The Scottsbluff solar project is one of several developed by GenPro, Sol Systems, and Mesner Development for the Nebraska Public Power District. The project is in the midst of a 25-year power purchase agreement between Sol Systems and NPPD, and participates in the utility's SunWise community solar program.

The PPA rate of $0.0519/kWh is the lowest rate NNPD has executed under its community solar program, according to a consortium that represents the three developers.

Renewable Energy World is in contact with NPPD, and has reached out to Sol Systems, regarding this story. Updates will be made as they come.

Stow early, stow often

Hail has become a prominent challenge for developers and asset owners, as modules move toward larger formats with thinner glass.

According to kWh Analytics, an asset insurance provider, moving panels into hail stow mode, where trackers are placed in a high degree tilt to reduce the impact energy of hailstones, is an effective mitigation technique that can reduce property insurance premiums up to 35%.

The firm modeled the revenue impact of a hail stow program to a 200 MW single-axis tracker site in Texas using PVLib and the National Solar Radiation Database.

GO DEEPER: Jason Kaminsky, CEO of the clean energy project insurance provider kWh Analytics, joined Episode 51 of the Factor This! podcast to share the data behind solar's biggest risks, along with pathways to avoid potholes down the road. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The firm found that, assuming a $22/MWh PPA, moving into hail stow during extreme weather events throughout the year resulted in production loss of $12,000 or 0.1% of the asset's $9.75 million estimated annual revenue. But the hail stow program resulted in a property insurance premium reduction of $2 million per year.

"The choice is clear: stow early and stow often when there is a chance of severe weather near your PV project," the report's authors wrote.

The report also noted that, based on RETC testing and modeling, PV modules with 3.2 mm tempered front glass over a polymer backsheet are approximately twice as resilient to impact as dual-glass modules with 2.0 mm heat-strengthened glass.