Hail damage to solar panels?

13 views

Skip to first unread message

beers.jo...@gmail.com

unread,

Aug 16, 2026, 8:45:51 PMAug 16

to Sector67 Public

Anybody else have solar panels damaged in the April hail storm? Or know someone who does? If so, let's talk off-list.

Our solar installer says microcracking can be a problem, but our insurer, State Farm denies that it can be a problem.

I would like to talk to other folks with hail damaged solar panels. We could perhaps help each other get panels inspected via thermal imaging for microcracking. We might share strategies for dealing with insurance companies, and what our solar installers are doing.

I've corresponded with folks at the City and at Madison College. The both had lots of damage to their solar arrays, and are dealing with their insurance companies.

Jonathan Beers

For more info:

https://www.energysage.com/news/solar-panels-withstand-hail/

“Schedule post-storm inspections even if panels look fine. Invisible damage including microcracks can spread over time, decreasing production and increasing fire risk. Professional inspections using infrared or electroluminescence imaging can catch problems early. If you have monitoring software, a sudden output drop of more than 5% on an otherwise clear day is a good trigger to schedule one.”

Thermography for solar panels:

https://support.sitemark.com/en/articles/4670501-visual-causes-of-thermal-anomalies

Nickolas Hein

unread,

Aug 16, 2026, 8:54:31 PMAug 16

to sect...@googlegroups.com

We use Amica and they were perfectly fine with replacing our entire array. I think they're probably more expensive, but this event got us our money's worth. It helped that the panels were 8 years old and direct replacements weren't available anyway. Our installer (Midwest Solar - also a personal connection) recommended full replacement because those microcracks can let water in that causes corrosion over time. We didn't notice significant loss of output in the 2 months it took to replace them - even though 3 panels had macro cracks. The new ones are up now and producing 20% more power for the same area.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sector67 Public" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sector67+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/33112f4b-02e1-4269-b086-45fa65ad3cd6n%40googlegroups.com.