Knowing that there was hail in the past doesn't mean that it can be predicted in a timely manner in the future so that the panels can be protected.
Would the panels need to be protected in every heavy rain storm just in case that the rain turns to hail within a period of seconds/minutes?
In this case if it had been predicted then would have all those people have deliberately left their motor vehicles in the open to get damaged?
The predictability probably depends on the local climate. I remember decades ago in Brittany we were having a beautiful August day on the beach, clear blue sky, hot sun, calm sea. Then all of sudden all the little boats out on the bay started coming in, some of them really motoring. What the hell? we thought. Then the sky went black and everybody started racing to the car park. We just got into the car when the hail started. Literally the size of golf balls. Our camper van with its near-vertical windscreen was OK, but at least a dozen of the more sporty cars with the sloped-back style of windscreens had them smashed.
alan_m snipped-for-privacy@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote
You don't do that by prediction.
You decide from the historical records if hail that can damage the solar panels is likely enough to warrant protecting the panels, and then turn the protection on if that involves active protection when a thunderstorm shows up.
Does no harm to do that given that the panels won't be doing anything useful electricity generation wise when the heavy rain storm shows up.
Plenty don't have any choice and plenty won't have been warned about the possibility of hail and plenty will just let the insurance cover it with such a rare event.
+1 :-)
Back in the day the joke was to never buy a car with a vinyl roof in Jo'burg, because that was how you 'fixed' one that had its paint stripped off by hail.
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