Solar panel damage in Perth: what to look for and what to do

Solar panels are designed to withstand decades of outdoor exposure, but they're not indestructible. Perth's climate — extreme UV, summer temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C, occasional hail, and coastal salt air — creates specific degradation and damage modes. Here's what to watch for and what to do when you find it.

Physical damage: cracks and breakage

Causes: Hail is the most common cause of cracked solar panels in Perth. The Perth Hills and inland suburbs experience more frequent hail than coastal areas. Falling debris (branches, tools during cleaning), extreme thermal stress, and foot traffic during maintenance also cause physical damage.

What it looks like: Spiderweb crack patterns across the glass surface. If the tempered glass is broken, shards may be contained by the backsheet (the white or black plastic backing) but the module is compromised.

Impact on generation: A small surface crack may reduce output by 5–20% depending on which cells are affected. A severely cracked module generates significantly less power and may trigger fault codes on your inverter.

What to do: Do not attempt to clean or touch a cracked module — the exposed cell area can carry dangerous DC voltages even with the inverter off. Contact your installer or a CEC-accredited solar electrician for assessment. If the crack occurred suddenly (hail event), document it promptly for your insurance claim (see the insurance section below).

Hotspots

A hotspot is localised overheating of a cell or group of cells within a panel. It's one of the more serious panel degradation modes because hotspots can degrade the cell permanently and, in severe cases, ignite the backsheet.

Causes:

• Partial shading of one or more cells — even a small shadow from a bird dropping, leaf, or antenna cable causes the shaded cell to act as a resistive load, converting electricity to heat
• Damaged or degraded cells generating heat disproportionate to surrounding cells
• Broken cell connections causing current to flow through high-resistance paths

What it looks like: Hotspots are not visible to the naked eye. They're detected by thermal imaging — an infrared camera shows hotspots as bright (hot) areas on an otherwise uniform temperature panel. This requires a thermal camera or a drone thermal inspection.

Impact on generation: Hotspots reduce output and accelerate permanent cell degradation. Severe hotspots (>20°C above surrounding cells) indicate a module likely needs replacement.

What to do: If your monitoring shows one panel producing significantly less than others (string-level monitoring required for this analysis), arrange a thermal inspection. Your installer or a solar maintenance company can perform thermal imaging — some Perth companies offer drone-based thermal surveys of the full array.

Snail trails

Snail trails are dark, brownish discoloration patterns that appear on solar panel surfaces over time. They're caused by silver cell conductor oxidation, typically initiated by micro-cracks in the cells (often from manufacturing defects or hail that's too small to cause visible glass damage but large enough to fracture cells).

What they look like: Thin brown or grey winding lines on the cell surface, visible through the glass. They often appear 2–5 years after installation.

Impact on generation: Snail trails reduce output — the discoloured areas have reduced conductivity. Panels with widespread snail trailing may produce 5–15% less than new panels.

What to do: Snail trails are typically a manufacturing defect. Most reputable panel manufacturers cover them under the product warranty. Check your panel warranty documentation — if the panels are under 10–12 years old, you may have a warranty claim. Contact the panel manufacturer's Australian distributor directly rather than relying on your installer, who may have ceased trading.

Delamination

Delamination is the separation of the transparent EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) encapsulant layer from the cell surface or the glass. It appears as bubbling, yellowing, or misty areas under the glass surface.

Causes: Moisture ingress (typically from a damaged frame seal or backsheet), UV degradation of the EVA, or manufacturing defects.

What it looks like: Yellow-brown or white cloudy areas visible through the glass. Not the same as surface dirt — delamination is inside the glass, not on it.

Impact on generation: Significant. Delaminated areas reduce cell output and create pathways for moisture that can cause corrosion and further damage.

What to do: Delamination is a product defect claimable under the manufacturer's product warranty. Document with photos. Contact the manufacturer's Australian representative. If the manufacturer has no Australian presence (some Chinese brands lack after-sales support), this is a buyer beware lesson for future panel selection.

Hail damage and insurance

Perth experiences hailstorms, particularly in spring and early summer. Most home and contents insurance policies cover hail damage to solar panels, but check:

• Is solar covered under your policy? Some policies cover solar only as an add-on or list it as excluded
• Is the hail claim above your excess? For single-panel replacement ($200–$400), the excess may exceed the claim value
• Did you document the event? Insurance claims require evidence of the specific hail event — weather records, photos taken promptly after the event, and the damage assessment

After a hail event: Do a visual inspection from the ground (binoculars are helpful) within 24 hours. If you see cracked glass, document with photos and contact your insurer before arranging any repairs. Proceeding with repairs before the insurance assessment can complicate claims.

Coastal salt air and frame corrosion

Perth's coastal suburbs — within approximately 5km of the ocean — expose panels to salt air. Over 10+ years, salt can cause:

• Aluminium frame corrosion (white oxidation on the frame)
• Junction box seal degradation (moisture ingress)
• Fastener corrosion on the mounting hardware

What to look for: White powdery deposits on the aluminium frame, rust or corrosion on stainless steel or zinc-coated fasteners, cracked or dried junction box seals.

Maintenance: Annual inspection by a qualified solar electrician (included in the annual maintenance checklist for coastal Perth homes). Frame cleaning with fresh water can reduce salt accumulation — avoid pressure washing that forces water into the frame channels.

Backsheet yellowing

The white or black plastic backsheet on the rear of solar panels can yellow, chalk, or crack with age and UV exposure. Perth's extreme UV is particularly aggressive on backsheets.

Impact: Yellowed backsheets have reduced insulation resistance, increasing the risk of electrical faults. Cracked backsheets allow moisture ingress.

What to do: A CEC-accredited electrician can test insulation resistance as part of a maintenance inspection. Cracked or severely yellowed backsheets typically require module replacement.

Perth solar panels face UV intensity, extreme heat, salt air (coastal), and occasional hail. Visual inspections from the ground, annual electrician checks, and monitoring generation data for unexplained drops are the early warning system. Most manufacturing defects (snail trails, delamination) are covered by manufacturer product warranties. Physical damage from hail is typically covered by home insurance. Don't climb on the roof to inspect panels — contact a qualified solar electrician.