If you’re not factoring extreme weather resilience into your solar project strategy, you’re leaving your investment vulnerable.
Recent hailstorms—once considered rare—have already caused millions of dollars in damage across utility-scale sites. In a recent joint webinar, ARRAY and VDE Americas shared hard-won lessons and real-world data showing how smart stow protocols and real-time weather response can dramatically reduce site losses during extreme hail events.
If minimizing claims, reducing downtime, reducing insurance costs, and protecting long-term levelized cost of energy (LCOE) are priorities for your next project, check out the following to gain a better understanding of key points that could help you to turn weather risk into a manageable, strategic advantage.
The Growing Threat of Extreme Weather
Storms like the 2024 Fort Bend County hailstorms in Texas—events that shattered panels across utility-scale solar fields—aren’t outliers anymore. They’re the new reality, and a clear reminder that weather resilience strategies should be built into projects from day one.
Innovations that Strengthen Solar Resilience
ARRAY’s technology portfolio is designed with extreme weather conditions in mind, offering solutions that balance energy generation with asset protection:
- Passive Wind Stow Technology: Mechanically allows tracker rows to move to a safe position when wind-activated without relying on sensors or electronics, helping preserve system reliability during high wind events.
- ARRAY SmarTrack® Hail Alert Response: Uses advanced weather APIs to send real-time alerts and trigger automated stow commands tailored to specific site conditions. Proactively positions trackers before and during severe weather events to reduce damage risk. Provides a built-in end-to-end functionality and communications verification platform to minimize complex counterparty risks.
- ARRAY SmarTrack® Automated Snow Response: Uses ultrasonic snow depth sensors to identify snow accumulation and intelligently adjust trackers to maximum tilt angle.
Field Insights: Fort Bend County Case Study
Real-world data provides the clearest Illustration: resilience strategies can dramatically impact outcomes. In the aftermath of the two major hailstorms hitting Fort Bend County within 12 hours, VDE Americas conducted a forensic analysis across affected solar sites.
Key findings included:
- These large sites had more severe module hail risk exposures: 2mm glass-glass construction, a maximum tilt angle of 52 degrees, and large hail strikes.
- Sites using ARRAY’s defensive hail stow protocols experienced demonstrably less module damage.
- Reliable tracker stow activation made a measurable difference in minimizing asset loss.
- Nighttime stow procedures were critical, as both hailstorms occurred outside normal operating hours with the largest hailstorm occurring in the middle of the night.
Top Priorities for Effective Hail Stow:
- Tracker Stow Activation: Ensuring that the tracker system moves to its designated stow position quickly is paramount. ARRAY’s DuraTrack® with Hail Alert Response has demonstrated consistent success in all rows on the site, achieving maximum stow angles for effective protection.
- Stow Direction Relative to Wind: Trackers should be stowed away from the incoming wind to minimize the impact of hail. ARRAY’s Hail Alert Response System allows customizable stow directions, enhancing resilience against hail and wind damage.
- High Stow Angle: Stowing at steeper angles, like the 52-degree angle used by DuraTrack®, has proven to effectively withstand hail impacts of 75mm or larger. This provides better protection for solar modules. ARRAY has also announced a new 77-degree stow angle product for extreme weather sites with larger hail exposures.
ARRAY’s Solution to the Wind and Hail Stow Angle Dilemma
One of the biggest challenges for site operators is balancing hail and wind protection—often forced to choose one at the expense of the other. A high angle tilt is often optimal for hail while a low angle tilt is usually preferred for wind. ARRAY’s hybrid active-passive stow technology solves this stow dilemma:
- Passive Stow Efficiency: Passive stow is wind activated and only impacts rows experiencing high winds. High wind forces will cause effected rows to quickly slip to the nearest maximum tilt angle, minimally affecting hail risk.
- Minimizing Energy Loss: The mechanics of passive stow cause only the rows experiencing high winds to stow, while unaffected rows continue normal operation—maximizing full energy yield capture on all other unstowed rows without compromising tracker safety.
This engineered approach delivers greater site resilience without materially sacrificing operational efficiency or project yield compared to other tracker products.
Future-Proofing Solar Investments
The future of utility-scale solar depends on proactive weather risk management. Innovations like ARRAY’s high-angle stow solutions and advanced modeling tools are already reshaping site design strategies:
- High-Angle Trackers: Provide critical protection during increasingly severe hailstorms.
- Yield Modeling Advancements: New energy loss models show passive stow systems can significantly lower yield loss compared to conventional active-only stow solutions, improving long-term project returns.
Actionable Takeaways for Stakeholders
If you’re planning your next utility-scale project—or evaluating risk strategies for an existing portfolio— here are some critical action steps that you should take into consideration:
- Implement hail stow protocols customized to your site’’s risk profile.
- Leverage real-time forecasting and automated stow solutions like the ARRAY SmarTrack® Hail Alert Response.
- Choose field-proven, engineering-driven technologies like ARRAY’s DuraTrack® to balance performance and protection.
Industry Outlook: Turning Risk into Resilience
As the industry adapts to a new era of climate volatility, proven resilience strategies are becoming a non-negotiable part of solar success. With innovations built for real-world challenges, ARRAY and VDE Americas are helping project owners protect investments—and power the future with confidence.
Learn more about ARRAY’s SmarTrack® Hail Alert Response or explore additional insights from VDE Americas.
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