Solar panels are protected from strong winds by the way they are designed and fixed to the house. There is no cover or device you add afterwards; the protection is the mounting system, the fixings, where the panels sit on the roof and how the roof itself holds them. On the coast and on exposed hills that design matters more, because the wind does.
How wind acts on panels
Wind does not only push on a panel. When it flows over a roof it creates suction that tries to lift the panels, and when it gets underneath a tilted panel it pushes up from below. The forces are strongest at the edges and corners of a roof, and on buildings that stand high or in the open. A panel is a large flat surface, so a fixing that is fine in a calm week has to hold considerably more in a storm.
What a sound installation does
Fixed to the structure, not the covering
On a tiled roof, panels are held by hooks fixed to the beams or slab under the tiles, never to the tiles themselves. The number of hooks and how far apart they are follows from the wind load for the site, not from a standard spacing.
Mounted to suit the roof
On a flat roof, frames are held down by ballast, by anchors in the structure, or both. Tilted panels catch more wind than flat-lying ones, so the tilt is a trade-off between production and wind load. Our guide on solar panels on a flat roof explains more.
Kept away from the edges
Because wind loads are highest at the edges and corners, panels are kept back from them. That sometimes means one or two panels fewer on a small roof, which is the right trade.
Tested parts
Panels are tested for mechanical load under the international standard IEC 61215, and the datasheet states the loads a panel is rated for, front and back, in pascals. Mounting systems come with their own tested ratings and installation rules. Following the manufacturer’s rules is what keeps both the warranty and the rating valid.
Designing for your site
Spanish building rules (the Código Técnico de la Edificación) set how wind loads on buildings are calculated, taking into account where the building is, how exposed it is and how high. For each installation we look at the exposure of the house, its height, the roof shape and the structure, and choose the mounting and fixing to match.
No installer can honestly promise that panels will survive every possible storm. What a good design does is make the system as strong as the roof it is fixed to, and keep the risk low.
Salt and wind together
Near the sea, wind carries salt, and corroded fixings hold less. The materials matter as much as the number of fixings; see solar panels near the sea.
Before and after a storm
When a storm is forecast, there is nothing to do on the roof. Afterwards, look from the ground or a terrace and check the app. If a panel has moved, anything is hanging loose, or production has dropped on a clear day, call us and stay off the roof: a damaged panel can still carry voltage.
We install across the province, including exposed houses around Alicante. How we fit a system is described on solar panel installation. To have your roof looked at, ask for a quote.
