VDE Americas, a provider of technical advisory, catastrophic risk assessment, and mitigation services for solar, has launched its VDE Hail Risk Atlas.
The Atlas is part of the company’s Hail Risk Intelligence products. It can predict the economic risk to solar projects from hail damage.
It does this by analysing the resistance of the PV modules and equipment used by the site, and the meteorological data of the location into account (ranging from low-risk regions to dangerous “known zones),
Many large utility-scale solar projects in the US are situated in the path of many storms including hailstorms (such as in the Midwest and South), putting their glass structures at risk.
John Sedgwick, President of VDE Americas, commented in the company’s statement: “North America’s solar energy infrastructure is dramatically underprepared for catastrophic events like hail.
“Our goal with the introduction of the Hail Risk Atlas… is to solve this problem so that solar power assets remain operational and carry us decades into the future,”
Jon Previtali, VP of Digital Services at VDE Americas, added: “Despite the growing demand for large deployments of solar power generation infrastructure, when we speak to high-value solar asset owners, it’s clear that the hail risk to these large-area assets is often unknown.”
By predicting the economic risk of potential hailstorms, the product will aid US solar developers, insurers, and investors in creating “more defensible, financeable, and insurable projects.”
The Hail Risk Atlas can be found via the Esri ArcGIS platform.
