[naniwaduni]

> I can throw a business card on most panels and take out 1/3 to 2/3 of that panel's output. If wired in a string, as is typical for utility scale PV, the loss of that single can take out the power production of that entire string (typically 12-22 panels worth), since it can no longer reach the inverter bus voltage set by the unimpaired strings.

Wait, how does this shit even work at all, then? Are solar farms just perpetually functioning at <50% capacity because everything broken all the time?

[extropy]

This used to be true for cheap panels. Better panels would have bypass diodes for every cell (the 10x10 cm square) and would only loose the output of the affected cell.

[blacksmith_tb]

You'd like to think there would be some monitoring - on my roof at home, I had something smash one of my 20 panels, right in the middle of the grid (probably a bullet falling after someone shot up in the air, but I like to pretend it was a meteor...) I didn't notice the output was halved for weeks.

[bradstewart]

A falling bullet broke a solar panel? How big of a bullet.... Mine have survived hailstorms without issue.