Hail or debris cracked a panel: what happens next and what it costs

A cracked or shattered panel is a replacement, not a repair: modules are sealed laminates and there is nothing to patch. Replacement is $400 to $900 per panel installed, and the hard part is not the labor but finding a module that matches a panel that was likely discontinued years ago. If a storm hit more than one panel, start with an inspection and a written report at $200 to $400, because that document is what an insurance adjuster works from. Meanwhile, stay off the roof: a broken panel is still live in daylight.

Check this first

1. Look from the ground and photograph what you can see. Spidered glass, a hole, a scorched or browned area inside the laminate, or a panel visibly lifted or shifted. Zoom rather than climb.
2. Open the monitoring app. If the app reports per panel, the damaged module usually shows a partial or zero output, and you can see immediately whether neighbors are affected too. On a plain string system, look at whole-string output instead.
3. Check the inverter display for a fault. A broken laminate that has taken on water often trips an isolation or ground fault, which stops the entire system. If it has, the inverter red light page explains what that family of codes means.

Do not go up, do not cover the panel with a tarp, and do not disconnect anything. The DC side is energized whenever the sun is on the glass, and a damaged module is the worst possible thing to handle.

What is usually wrong

All ranges are on the pricing page, and the module side is covered on the panel repair page.

Why matching the panel is the real problem

Modules are discontinued within a few years of release, and Lee County’s residential fleet went up mostly between 2015 and 2023. A replacement has to be close enough in physical size to fit the existing rails and close enough electrically, on voltage and current, to sit in the same string without upsetting it. When an exact match no longer exists, the options are a same-size module from another maker after a compatibility check, rearranging the string so the mismatch does not matter, or, on a badly damaged array, replacing a whole roof face and claiming it.

Systems with Enphase microinverters or SolarEdge optimizers are easier here, because each panel is managed on its own and a slightly different module is far less disruptive. Plain string systems are fussier, which is one more reason a per-panel architecture is worth having.

Storm damage in Southwest Florida

Hail is uncommon here compared with the plains, and most cracked panels in Lee County are debris rather than ice. The National Hurricane Center’s Ian report records a Cayo Costa landfall at 130 knots on September 28, 2022, a second landfall near Punta Gorda at 125 knots, and 52,514 impacted structures in Lee County. The National Weather Service Tampa Bay survey documents an EF2 tornado with 132 mph winds on October 9, 2024 that ran 16.56 miles from south of Gladiolus Drive through Fort Myers and across the river into North Fort Myers, with an EF1 in Matlacha that took half the roof off two homes. In events like those, the panel damage is roof tiles, fascia, and branches thrown at glass, not hail.

The other common source is a roofing job. If a re-roof happened over or beside your array, damage from dropped tools and tiles is a real category, and it is one more reason the panels should come off before tear-off rather than being worked around. That sequence is on the detach and reset page.

What is covered

Panel manufacturer warranties cover defects and performance degradation. They do not cover impact damage, which is an insurance question rather than a warranty question. Your installer’s workmanship warranty would not have covered it either, and if the installer has closed, that warranty is gone regardless: the installer out of business page covers what does survive.

What to expect on the call

Send the ground photo, the app screenshot, and the panel’s make and model from the label if you have paperwork. You get an honest read on whether the module is genuinely dead, a matching search with a real timeline, and a number from the published range. If several panels or the roof took damage, you get an inspection report written for an adjuster rather than a sales quote.