Climate change: Solar farm operators can do this to get a hail insurance cover
Climate change has turned into possibly the greatest-ever threats to humanity. It is putting scores of living species in danger. The human activities-led crisis is elevating global average temperatures and increasing the intensity and frequency of natural disasters.
One of the least considered repercussions of the climate crisis is the increasing frequency of hailstorms and the impact of the pieces of ice they produce. This, in turn, threatens one of the most important solutions to the global problem – solar panels.
The number of hailstorms in Europe exceeded 10,000 in the last year. In Italy and Germany, the size of large hailstones increased to 10 cm – big enough to smash greenhouses, break a solar panel or dent a car. Climate change is making hailstorms much more frequent than ever.
Solar farms need to make modifications for hail cover
Solar panels do not have any moving parts. So maintenance is minimal. But the threat of hail is bringing changes. In Texas, baseball-sized holes have been knocked in the panels due to hailstorms, causing large-scale damage.
Insurance companies are ready to provide a hail cover. But they have a condition. Solar panels need to have a mechanism that can turn them at least 70 degrees to the ground, so the impact of the large hailstones is minimised to a great deal.
Some recently opened solar farms that had already planned a system to turn the panels in the direction of the sun as the day progresses have started making modifications so the panels can be rendered almost upright if a hailstorm alert is issued, according to the Guardian.
