Micro-bursts from thunderheads during the Rain Season are just a fact of life up here in Northern Thailand. 
I'm just curious.  How do you protect your solar panels from hail?

Generally, nobody does anything more than using decent panels, they are (theoretically) resistant to "normal" hail.

 

How big is the hail you are seeing from the microbursts and how often are they affecting the area where your panels are/will be installed?

 

55 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Generally, nobody does anything more than using decent panels, they are (theoretically) resistant to "normal" hail.

 

How big is the hail you are seeing from the microbursts and how often are they affecting the area where your panels are/will be installed?

 

We have seen hail big enough to dent cars.  But it essentially is a matter of luck (or being unlucky).  You can watch these storm cells develop on weather radar.  These are usually 'small' localize micro-bursts that effect one area of village and yet 5 km away there is no damage.  We've been lucky up to this point and when we have gotten hail it's noisy as heck but of rather 'normal' size. 

Anyway, good to know that they are design to be 'hail resistant' within tolerances.   I didn't know that. 

3 hours ago, connda said:

We have seen hail big enough to dent cars.  But it essentially is a matter of luck (or being unlucky).  You can watch these storm cells develop on weather radar.  These are usually 'small' localize micro-bursts that effect one area of village and yet 5 km away there is no damage.  We've been lucky up to this point and when we have gotten hail it's noisy as heck but of rather 'normal' size. 

Anyway, good to know that they are design to be 'hail resistant' within tolerances.   I didn't know that. 

Plenty of places in the world got hail storms . Many places in South France and Spain got dents in cars every single year , yet , plenty of solar there . Normal hail will not harm the panels , neither will the wind harm them . But off course , if the hail is big enough or the wind gusts are very strong in the wrong direction , the panels can go flying away or be damaged .

I wonder if you can get insurance for that , since panels flying away can cause a lot of damage .

BTW the weather i've seen damaging panels/roofs is 99.99% of the times much worse then the ones noticed in Thailand .

"Big" hail can certainly damage panels https://solartechadvisor.com/solar-panels-hail-damage/ but as noted above it's all about frequency and luck, particularly with extremely localised weather phenomena such as microbursts.

 

A quick Google and a search on another solar forum of which I'm a user showed that there are people protecting their panels, unfortunately 90% of the protection schemes also cover the panels meaning that the protection has to be placed if a storm is coming and removed afterwards.

 

A 1/2" mesh chicken-wire cover over the panels should reduce any impact damage without massively impacting production. But I've not found any actual test data on such a solution and you have to ensure that it doesn't sag and yet the supports don't shadow the panels.

 

https://solvoltaics.com/how-to-protect-solar-panels-from-hail/

 

Down here in BKK I don't recall seeing hail of any size in 20 years or so, plenty of very heavy rain of course. So, famous last words here, I'm not going to bother.

 

Best protection is an insurance policy.

On the other hand, the savings made in electricity costs could be banked ready for such disasters. 

I have been working very long hours these past few days on my design of a translucent energy force field and am now in a position to offer it on pre-order for 500,000 TBh per unit.

One unit is sufficient to protect 2 x 340W panels.

PM me for further details.

2 hours ago, Muhendis said:

I have been working very long hours these past few days on my design of a translucent energy force field and am now in a position to offer it on pre-order for 500,000 TBh per unit.

One unit is sufficient to protect 2 x 340W panels.

PM me for further details.

 

Will they will be made by Super-Boondee of Ghost-Repeller fame?

44 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Will they will be made by Super-Boondee of Ghost-Repeller fame?

Very similar but mine does need regular lubrication with refined snake oil.