In September of 2013, a megastorm that caused massive flooding along Colorado’s Front Range hit. At the time, my family and I were living in a single family home in Aurora, Colo. — complete with a 5.5 kW solar system we had had installed in June of 2010.
The storm delivered a HUGE hail storm to our neighborhood and the hail totaled our asphalt shingle roof. But the solar panels were not damaged at all.Ā
This is pretty typical: Solar panels are substantially stronger in hail than the roofs upon which they are installed. So do not pay heed to the worry that hail will destroy your solar system — and do not use this fear of hail damage to solar panels as a reason not to buy a home solar system.
To the contrary, your solar panels will hold out much better than virtually any roof will.
I was just reminded of this on the Tesla.Com solar pages where they have a cool animated GIF that illustrates the hardiness of solar panels vs. asphalt shingles.
There may be some reasons not to buy a solar system in some cases for some people: Possible hail damage should NOT be one of these. Your solar panels will survive virtually any hail storm, likely unscathed.