Tech review of new defensive hail stow system confirms 100% success across multi-day severe convective storm outbreak in Arkansas
Rare but expensive catastrophic solar losses are on the rise as project development activities expand to hail-exposed regions in Africa, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. Earlier this year, climate insurance provider kWh Analytics reported that hail accounts for 6% of its solar project insurance claims by volume but roughly 73% of total dollar losses.1 Meanwhile, specialty insurer GCube has noted that its average solar hail claim expense is over $58 million.2 Automated stow protocols are increasingly deployed in utility applications to prevent physical damage and financial losses.
The Challenge
Proving these hail defense systems work reliably in advance of extreme weather events remains a critical technology verification gap. In a post-event forensic investigation explained in the 2025 Solar Risk Assessment, VDE Americas found that defensive hail stow protocols successfully prevented widespread physical damage at three utility-scale solar farms in Fort Bend County, Texas, during multiple one-in- 500-year hail events in mid-March 2024. Given that PV module hail damage at the exposed sites was isolated to a small portion of one PV power plant that did not achieve hail stow due to a pre-existing tracker motor issue, investigators concluded that overall site damages could have been much worse if not for operational hail stow protocols.3
Though the Fort Bend County forensic investigation’s findings are promising, many in the insurance, investor, and technical due diligence community invariably ask: “How can project stakeholders have confidence that operational hail stow measures will work as intended when needed?”
