Powering Progress: Weathering the Elements: Insights from PVRW 2025

The annual Photovoltaic Reliability Workshop (PVRW), hosted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory, brings together leading experts from national labs, academia, module manufacturers, and insurance carriers. This year’s gathering on solar reliability and resiliency has significant implications for the industry. Here are the key takeaways:

The First Insurance Panel

The inclusion of PVRW’s first-ever insurance panel underscores how critical insurance has become to the solar industry. Our colleague Nicole Thompson shared an analysis of how specific resilience measures affect damage ratios and insurance premiums. She noted that 70% of solar insurance losses by dollar value come from hail damage, paving the way for premium differentiation for hardened assets. She discussed the emergence of advanced risk models that incorporate stow angles, testing documentation, and historical stow logs to create more accurate pricing.

Industry experts from CAC Specialty, FM, and Moore-McNeil provided sobering context: insurance premiums have increased approximately 9x over the past decade (from ~4¢ to ~35¢ per $100 of value for “like” coverage, if available). They highlighted that without proper risk mitigation, projects may become uninsurable as natural catastrophe events increase in frequency and severity.

Glass Matters More Than Ever

The industry’s push toward bigger, floppier modules is creating new reliability challenges. Jennifer Braid from Sandia National Laboratories highlighted how “we engineered our way into this mess” with decreasing glass thickness and increasing module size, so “we can engineer our way out.”

Hongbin Fang from LONGi Solar emphasized that 3.2mm/2mm dual glass bifacial modules can withstand 4.5 times the impact energy compared to 2mm heat-strengthened glass modules. Designs with thicker glass specifically engineered for hail-prone regions also show improved wind load ratings.

Realities from the Field

Penny Ladner from DNV provided a reality check on the disconnect between design specifications and field execution. She emphasized that things run very differently in the field than what you would imagine when sitting in the ‘ivory tower’.

The industry is suffering from a lack of skilled labor, causing serious quality control issues during solar installation. Penny noted the need for apprentice programs to train the required workforce and automation to simplify on-field processes.

This perspective underscores how even the most resilient designs can fail when improperly implemented – a crucial consideration for insurance evaluation and risk management.

Tracker Dynamics Need Closer Attention

Dan Chawla from Natural Power reported that trackers are often modeled as perfect in energy estimates, but reality shows they frequently operate sub-optimally. His data revealed that losing up to 5% of energy is common just from tracker operation issues.

Nathaniel H. and Scott Brian Van Pelt, P.E. from GameChange Solar discussed a significant gap in current tracker testing standards. Their analysis revealed that systems that passed the dynamic mechanical load testing specified by IEC 62782 can still fail when subjected to wind patterns equivalent to real-world hurricane events via wind tunnel testing. Unlike building codes that focus on maximum wind gusts, tracker systems need evaluation for cumulative fatigue from thousands of pressure cycles throughout their operational life.

The MGA Perspective

Our team at PVRW shared several posters to advance the renewable insurance industry:

• Hannah Rasmussen and Adam Shinn: Incentivizing Reliable PV through Insurance Premium Reduction
• Reilly Fagan: From Hail to Hardware: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment for Solar Asset Resilience
• Phoebe Hwang: Data-driven Insights into Solar Production Performance
• Mike Mousou: Watts the Hype? AI’s Role in Powering Solar Reliability (Outstanding Poster Award)
• Charity Sotero: PV Equipment Failures: Patterns and Predictions from O&M log data

For more details, visit https://hello.kwhanalytics.com/pvrw-2025/ to watch each researcher discuss their work.

The Key Takeaway

Delivering resilient PV systems requires diligent design, stringent material and installation quality standards, and an uncompromising focus on long-term durability in harsh environments.

There are no shortcuts. Engaging with the technical community to stay up to date on emerging risks and mitigation approaches is essential for the industry to prepare for the challenges ahead.

Finally, a recognition is in order for Michael Mousou who won a poster award at this year’s event. Congratulations Mike!