AUSTIN, Texas — Hail the size of golf balls fell on some parts of Central Texas earlier this week. We saw cars totaled, roofs battered and quite a few solar panels heavily damaged. That means solar panel technicians in the area are staying busy.
Solar panels are a popular option for neighbors in the Mueller neighborhood.
"We got them because we thought it would really help on the electric bill for sure, you know," said Ron Lovelace, a solar owner. "Yeah, it works great."
Lovelace said solar has had a big impact on his utility costs, but with this recent round of hail, his family is having to assess the damage.
"I think all of those are damaged. You can't see it. But if you get binoculars – I've got binoculars that they're looking at, and you can see the damage. And I think they're all damaged," Lovelace said while looking at his solar panels.
"It is designed to shatter on impact, not to just throw glass everywhere like your regular single-pane window," said Derek Garcia, the project manager for Texas Solar Power Company.
Garcia's company is a family-owned business that started in 1996 and was one of the first in Texas.
He said with a home like Lovelace's, the panels held pretty strong. But this week's hail was no joke.
"Here you see two that are broken, and every other one around them is fine. It's all just with the angle, speed, size of hail. Some were hit with baseball-sized hail, some were hit with quarter-sized pieces. You know, it just varies," Garcia said.
Garcia said his technicians have been busy this week, taking calls about damaged panels after the storm. But he and his coworkers say in some cases, minor cracking may not actually keep the panels from generating power.
"Micro-cracking, a lot of times with panels that it does not actually expose the internal parts of the panel, they do still work just fine," said Colby Wheaton, who is in sales with the Texas Solar Power Company.
Now these neighbors are looking toward insurance and the area's homeowners' association to see how they'll move forward with panel repairs.