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MotorTrend reports https://www.motortrend.com/news/kia-plant-solar-power-hail-protection that the Kia assembly plant in Georgia suffered very expensive hail damage to new cars waiting to be shipped, back in a storm in 2023. The fix is a massive raised solar array of 3.2 million square feet (300,000 meters^2) over the car park/storage area.
The system has about 17,000 solar panels on the columns of a structure that is large enough to protect about 15,000 vehicles from the elements until they are loaded onto trucks or rail cars for delivery. Hail damage costs billions of dollars a year.
The panels are not all connected yet. Construction began in 2024 and the goal was to be done in the first quarter of 2026 but panels are still being installed. It should be finished this spring.
VPS [Vehicle Protection Structures] has provided this kind of protection to dealerships, but this is the first large-scale execution for an assembly plant.
The partnership is also working with Georgia Power to optimize energy production and integrate the power generated by the solar panels into the plant. The panels will be capable of supplying 10 percent of the plant's energy needs. The project also provided credits under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act until that act was terminated.
Pics at the link, sort of like large "pop-up" shelters. To your AC submitter it's quite attractive.
Insuring the solar panels for hail damage seems like it would be cheaper than insurance to cover the same area of cars.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday March 03, @10:47PM
The issue isn't the price of the panels, that's negligible. I just looked up the prices for tiles (after I looked at current panel prices two postings ago). Ordinary roof tiles, basic red from a common vendors, run around 20€/m^2, a bit more posh ones come at 32€/m^2. The panels are 35€/m^2. For 100m^2 roof, the extra cost for the material is between 300 and 1500€. Even if they run at 10% peak, they will pay for themselves in months rather than years.
However, installation and especially sealing is a bitch with what's available. You'd probably need specific rubber profiles both for horizontal and vertical gaps, and decent fitting panels for the edges. Nothing that can't be solved, but once that has happened, roof tile manufacturers will run lobby campaigns how helpless children will cruelly burn to death because, er, electricity.