The Hail Alert Response System
The Hail Alert Response system is an automated protection mechanism primarily designed to shield solar assets, such as solar trackers, from hail damage by using advanced weather prediction and sensor technologies. Here’s how it works:
Core Functionality
- The system receives real-time local storm data from reliable weather service providers, which includes information such as the forecasted storm position, hail probability, and storm trajectory.
- Using weather prediction algorithms, the system anticipates hail events approximately 30 minutes before they occur.
Data Processing and Alerts
- In systems like Kisters’ HailSens IoT, integrated microcontrollers process sensor data in real-time, measuring parameters like hailstone size and hailstorm intensity by analyzing kinetic energy when hailstones strike sensor plates.
- This data can be transmitted immediately to either local acquisition systems or cloud-based servers for early warning alerts and further analysis, enabling actionable and timely responses.
Automated Protective Actions
- Upon receiving a high hail probability alert, the system creates a site-specific alert communicated via platforms such as Array Technologies’ SmarTrack Data Platform to on-site controllers.
- The solar trackers are then autonomously repositioned into defensive positions—usually by tilting the panels maximally away from the approaching storm or to the safe maximum tilt position—to minimize hail damage while also optimizing wind resistance.
- These trackers are equipped with passive wind mitigation mechanisms allowing them to withstand full design wind speeds even when tilted for hail protection, ensuring structural safety.
Security and Integration
- Communications between the data platform and on-site controllers are encrypted to ensure secure operation.
- The system is compatible with existing solar tracking hardware (e.g., DuraTrack or OmniTrack) and requires a dedicated controller for effective implementation of the hail alert features.
Additional Insights
- Radar technology, including dual-polarization radar used by organizations like NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, assists hail detection by differentiating hail from rain and estimating hail sizes, which supports the hail alert system’s accuracy.
- These systems offer highly precise alerts, sometimes up to 90 minutes before hail impact, thus enabling preemptive actions to reduce damage and operational losses.
In summary, the Hail Alert Response system combines real-time sensor data and advanced weather forecasting to detect imminent hail threats and autonomously protect vulnerable solar infrastructure by repositioning equipment into safer configurations well before hail arrives, thereby safeguarding assets and improving resilience against severe weather.
Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/how-does-the-hail-alert-response-system-work/
