Tracker motor fault exposed solar modules during hailstorm in Fort Bend County, Texas
EIR-0090Provisional entry. This account rests on a single article that references an unlinked forensic review and trade coverage rather than primary documents, so the precise sequence, the exact damage count and the root cause attribution are not yet independently confirmed. No further update is scheduled; the entry stays provisional until new information is published.
During a severe hail event in Fort Bend County, Texas, a county with several large utility-scale solar arrays in the southern United States, three neighbouring sites are reported to have executed a pre-storm hail stow protocol, rotating single-axis trackers to a steep angle to reduce direct impact on module glass. Two of the sites reportedly experienced no hail damage. At the third, a section of trackers is reported to have failed to reach full stow angle because a motor did not respond to the command. Hailstones exceeding four inches in diameter are reported to have struck this area directly, breaking glass on several dozen modules. Rows where stow reportedly completed normally, at this and the neighbouring sites, are said to have sustained no direct hail damage. A review is reported to have traced the damaged section to the location of the motor fault, though this review has not been independently sighted.
A tracker motor or gearbox is reported to have failed to move in response to the hail stow command, leaving a section of the array at an angle that allowed direct hail impact rather than a glancing strike. Tracker motor maintenance is reported to have been prioritised based on generation yield loss rather than storm-readiness risk.
- Stow-critical actuators should be maintained and tested against a storm readiness standard, not only a generation yield threshold, since a stalled motor during a stow event has outsized consequences compared with its cost.
- Sites relying on automated hail stow protocols should include real time confirmation that each tracker row has reached the commanded angle, with alerts for non responsive units.
- Periodic full stow function tests ahead of severe weather seasons can help identify failed actuators before they are needed.
Published 2026-09-07. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.