It’s easy be in panic mode when severe weather like tornadoes or fires damage a solar project. Keeping some key advice in mind will limit downtime and find projects back to full operation.

Prioritize Safety
Every step of remediation must build safety into the equation. From the primary moments of inspecting a damaged site to the ultimate walk through after restoration is complete, safety protocols are key.

Restoration projects are uniquely complicated, and few of the workers on-site will have done this type of repair work previously. there’s no off switch for a solar array . Live wires could also be dangling in unexpected locations. Heavy equipment might not be secured the site. As work progresses, new hazards may arise unexpectedly. Beware!

In addition to making sure that each worker incorporates a pristine safety record, ongoing worker training and site safety inspections should be built into every step of the method . Each worker should tend a site orientation as they start each stage of the project, even though they’ve worked on earlier stages. Restoration work means ongoing dynamic changes throughout the location .

Dodge Speed Traps
Time poses the largest risk in any restoration project. Although the insurance payments for lost production may create a false sense of security, those payments won’t continue indefinitely. Start as soon as possible — at the very least with clean-up operations.

But don’t prioritize speed over everything else. Only start deconstructing damaged areas after you get audit guidelines from the manufacturers to work out whether parts are salvageable. And don’t take a partially operating plant offline to start work until you’ve got all necessary materials onsite. Shipping delays could derail your operation, causing you to turn off generating power far earlier than necessary and leading to more than expected generation and revenue losses.

Even as restoration work begins, still reassess what must be done and when. While you would possibly have checked out cabling and decided all the wiring must be thrown out, you’ll find parts which will be reused as you go along. you may find that a whole site was done with the wrong connectors in the first place, which suggests re-doing all of them site-wide. A plant restoration expert isn’t aiming to simply restore the site; they’re planning to make it better than it had been .

Ensure Human Resources Match Site Needs
Maintain a transparent schedule with daily and weekly visibility. Define key milestones and ensure everyone tracks progress toward meeting them. Include all subcontractors and contractors in every assessment; transparency can rid off problems before they become serious.

That transparency includes ensuring all workers are within the correct place. It doesn’t matter if a subcontractor has a wonderful reputation if they’re assigning their JV squad to your project while their sharpest workers are building new sites.

Restoration requires detail-oriented, organized, punctual individuals with experience in salvage, repair and replacement who understand the way to answer a site’s evolving needs.

What To Seem For In An O&M Partner
Site remediation after an extreme weather event could be a tricky business. While many O&M providers will attempt it, few have the boots-on-the-ground experience required to make sure complete and timely asset recovery while maximizing insurance payout.

Look for a restoration expert with broad capabilities that knows what may be salvaged and what must get replaced. ensure it’s the extensive networks required to source hard-to-find components or to manufacture out-of-production parts.

Find a capable O&M partner conversant in coordinating talent across multiple disciplines so that they will be your single point of contact. Experience, reputation and financial viability are all key to a successful O&M relationship.

Climate change is causing more severe weather events across the country and solar projects are often within the cross-hairs. Sandstorms jam debris particles into delicate equipment. Storm surges flood rows of inverters. Tornadoes rip apart racking systems. Wildfires whip across sites, melting wires and cables. Structural assets built to last three decades are often mangled beyond recognition within an hour.

What’s an asset owner to try to to when a natural disaster strikes a solar project?

1. Assess And Regroup: How bad is it?
There are four levels of injury to consider:

• Complete Destruction: Nothing is operational. there’s no method to generate power from any of the parts of the plant without significant remediation.

• Partial Destruction: Anywhere from 15% to 1/2 that site is offline. the remaining parts could also be operational, but balancing repairs elsewhere may require shutting down undamaged sections over time.

• Minor Damage: Roughly 10% of that site has been affected. There may be some central inverters offline and a few tracker rows could also be damaged, but the site can produce power and perform.

• Site Intact with Some Production Issues: One or more inverters are offline, but the general site is generating power.

2. Perform A Top-to-Bottom Evaluation

Initial impressions may be misleading. even though only one inverter has gone offline, it pays to check each row and document every part that’s damaged. Take a minimum of four or five pictures of everything which will require attention. Note serial numbers if possible. Keep track of all information in a very spreadsheet or app and keep adding information because the remediation project continues.

Yes, it’s time consuming, but you don’t want to create multiple site visits or, worse, discover hidden damage after you’ve started remediation work. It’s critical to understand what to expect before inviting contractors to supply repair estimates. Thorough initial documentation will help avoid change orders later.

For sites with more extensive damage, a grid-by-grid drone flyover can help map the extent of destruction. It’s common for insurance companies to hide drone inspections because they need to understand the scope of injury the maximum amount as you. Get both standard and infrared views of the whole site; thermal problems invisible to the eye show up in infrared photos.

3. Invite Experts

Because site restoration are often complex, consider bringing in an engineering firm with solid restoration experience early within the process. Experts who have already addressed natural disaster or storm damage can help with initial inspections and documentation to offer you a start on subjective decisions about what must get replaced and what could also be salvageable.

With many solar component manufacturers going out of business, an engineering partner can help determine which equipment could also be obsolete or find replacement parts.

These sorts of decisions are what makes recovering from extreme weather events radically different than building a brand new solar plant. Solar contractors that stand out building new sites may haven’t had to retool damaged components or work around partially functioning systems. An experienced engineering firm can get your restoration pointed in the right direction from the get-go.

4. Determine Salvage vs. Replacement
To determine what components will be salvaged and what needs replaced, first test damaged equipment and establish criteria about what conditions warrant repair and what mandates replacement. Flexibility is key; you don’t want to form matters worse, but you furthermore may don’t want to miss a chance to continue using viable parts.

In one case, a tornado had ripped off an older inverter’s top and side panel. Although initially the asset owner and inverter manufacturer agreed that the whole inverter would wish to get replaced , upon further inspection the Solar Support team presented an idea to re-energize the equipment. It worked. rather than spending over $200,000 to exchange the facility conversion station, the O&M team was able to repair the damaged enclosure at minimal cost.

5. Open Bids For Contractors And Choose
Come up with a rough idea of the value of repairs before inquiring for bids using early documentation and assessment. Tell contractors what you already know in order that they can substantiate any additional work which will factor into their quote.

Be sure that bids take into consideration dismantling damaged parts of the site before reconstruction can happen . While fixing a replacement tracker row may cost a given amount initially, contractors also got to think about deconstruction of what’s already there and determining what materials will be salvaged.

And that’s only for the structural piece of the project. Matching new electrical parameters to preexisting designs also can be an enormous undertaking. for instance , nearly a decade ago, most sites were 600-V systems, but new plants today are 1,000-V or 1,500-V systems. There are few solutions to travel backward to 600 V during remediation which can mean vastly different bids for repair or replacement.

That’s why it’s important to try and do your own estimates earlier than time. If the bids you receive aren’t in line with what you expected, return to your documentation and take a look at to see why that’s . Has the contractor identified something you missed? If the bid is much less than you anticipated, take a better look too. watch out for the most affordable bid, because it’s likely that company doesn’t understand the complete scope of the work involved. which will mean costly change orders later — the bane of any restoration project.

6. Work With Insurance Companies
Remember that insurers will want to vet contractors. they require to examine rapid progress toward repairs particularly if they’re paying lost production damages but they also want to ascertain extensive validation to justify those bids.

This is where a full-scope general contractor are often invaluable. An umbrella company may be to blame for the myriad subcontractors required to revive a damaged PV plant. A general contractor that makes a specialize on doing PV plant restoration work manages everything, including holding all required licenses, coordinating the work schedule, overseeing every aspect of the repair work, handling the project’s extensive documentation and interacting with insurers throughout the method . this will be the difference between collecting your full claim and incurring substantial losses because of unforeseen delays.

An insurer will have its own vendors tracking the project, like subrogation and investigations teams. Although asset managers may go directly with an insurance adjuster, contractors are more likely to speak through a 3rd party hired to help the adjuster. Different documentation could also be required at every level of the claims process, which is able to be reviewed by parties with varying degrees of technical understanding. Keep your documentation clear for laypersons.

Restoring damaged utility-scale solar projects may be complicated process that needs organization and specific expertise. Following these six steps will get solar projects back up and running after severe weather events, while limiting expensive downtime for asset owners.

One thing learned during the corona-virus pandemic was the effectiveness of soap and water regularly washing our hands was our greatest defense. While dirty solar panels do have the benefit of constant washing to avoid reduced output and efficiency, soap isn’t the solution here

As a solar installer and maintenance provider Green Icon Energy (griensolar) never uses a detergent or soap on solar panels, instead counting on deionized water and a rotating-brush system to scrub solar panels.

Soaps can leave bubbles or residue that not only shades panels just like the dirt that was just washed off, but it can even encourage dirt to stay and build up faster, “We use deionized water that’s applied through our rotating-brush system. this is often the simplest method leave the solar panels with a spot-free shine that’s as beautiful like first day they were installed.”

Rather than risk employee safety or potential damage to the solar panels they’re cleaning, the cleaner or company can use Sola-Tecs brush cleaners since 2018. A rolling brush is attached to wheels that glide across the solar panels, allowing an almost-hands-free deep clean.We can also runs the customer’s water through a demineralizing and ionizing system.

We’ve found that together with our water treatment procedure, it’s the most effective method clean solar panels. It requires less water, fewer passes and no harsh chemicals or detergents.”

Also, we finds that using deionized water through water-fed poles and brushes works just fine to wash solar projects.

If you can smelled your hands after washing them with soap, what you smell is that the soap left behind, even if you can’t see any soap afterwards, “If we used soap to wash panels, the very small molecules of soap would go away something behind for dust and dirt to create upon.”

GRIENSOLAR offers a full maintenance suite, including inspections to search out damaged panels that require beyond just cleaning.

The homes and factories nearest the airport and highways gather smog or oil-based pollution, which resist running off with a standard rainfall. These make a number of the older blue panels appear black initially glance. Dirt on the surface reflects light faraway from the panels. A clean panel remains cooler, allowing the flow of electrons to maneuver more easily.

Another way of cleaning solar panels can be by uses a mix of diluted vinegar and peroxide to aide in scrubbing away dirt and dirt.

When rain happens, soil accumulates at the lowestfringe of the solar array , obstructing the lower PV cell row and hindering the assembly efficiency. It’s just like a car getting hosed down — you continue to ought to scrub it or use a soil-releasing mixture so as to avoid scrubbing.

Sometimes just water isn’t enough, but everyone agrees that soap should never be used. That’s why lubricant manufacturer Polywater released its solar array Wash five years ago. The highly concentrated additive isn’t a filmy soap; instead it enhances water’s ability to wash solar panels, said Charlie Cole, Polywater international VP.

Non-soap solar array Wash from Polywater

We’re giving the water the capacity to lift the soil off the panel as against a solvent, which is essentially surrounding the dirt particle and taking it off the panel, [Solar Panel Wash] is safer for the components of the panel. It’s not getting to affect anti-reflective films; it’s not getting to corrode the aluminum rails. It’s biodegradable, meaning that it’s non-persistent, making it friendly with the environment. It’s not getting to affect the groundwater.

Solar Panel Wash modifies the physical phenomenon of the water, so rather than water beading up, it’ll form endless film across the solar panels to lift dirt and debris. Cole said solar array Wash is particularly helpful in arid locations where dust is high and water is scarce, because the wash allows for fewer water to be utilized in cleaning.

A lot of those installations are wiped out desert regions where the supply of water is basically a problem . If we will reduce the utilization of water, it’s an environmental benefit.

Even on residential projects, homeowners will enjoy paying some extra attention to the cleanliness of their few solar panels.

We oftentimes hear customers say that the rain does just fine cleaning their panels, and while the rain does wash some dirt off, it doesn’t truly clean the panels. If the panels are already filthy, the rain just makes it worse by converting dust to thick layers of mud, The perfect analogy is to think about your car. If your car hasn’t been washed in six months, does leaving it call at the rain make the dirt better or worse? an equivalent is true with dirty solar panels.

Just don’t use soap — a touch effort and water work fine.