AG Notes Storms Damaged Many Solar Panels

Interesting update from AG in Belgium, where lots of solar panel damage was reported;

The storms Eunice and Franklin that have travelled all over Europe in recent days have also caused a lot of damage in Belgium.  Most damage cases seem to be situated in Flanders. AG expects eunice and Franklin together, both in terms of number of damage cases and total costs, to be at the top of the list of the heaviest storms of the past decades.

With wind speeds of up to 130 km/h and more, Eunice was announced as one of the heaviest storms to hit our country since 1990. In that year, storms Daria and Vivian swept across the country with wind speeds of up to 168 km/h*. More recently, the successive spring storms Dennis and Ciara of February 2020 accounted for some 30,000 claims files at AG. However, given their size and wind speeds achieved, it looks like Eunice and Franklin together will greatly outweigh that damage.

See a compilation of storm damage across Western Europe here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owfwX0m5jYA
 
Until Monday evening, February 21, the market leader in home insurance (with a market share of about 25%) already received more than 10,000 claims. But AG assumes that tens of thousands more damage claims will be added in the coming days and weeks. Many customers report claims to their broker, who then passes them on to the insurer. Based on its experience with previous storms, AG expects to receive a total of more than 40,0000 declarations for Eunice and Franklin combined. According to AG, it is still too early for a reliable estimate of the total cost price.

Solar panels

What is already striking is the large number of damages to solar panel installations on roofs of homes, perhaps the result of the extremely high wind speeds that accompanied Eunice and Franklin. In this respect, AG can reassure its customers: solar panels are insured against storm damage as standard in AG’s Top Home Insurance.

AG confirms that the priority in the first days was to protect the most affected homes from further damage from wind and rain. For example, the own network of repairers Homeras has already carried out more than 1,500 assignments for urgent interventions in recent days.