The Earth is getting hotter and the storms costlier. In March 2023, a hailstorm in Georgia damaged more than 13,000 vehicles at Kias West Point assembly plant. As the automaker sought a way to prevent this from happening again, it turned to Vehicle Protection Structures and the two worked on a hail protection project. The 3.2 million square feet of overhead protection also generates solar power.
The system has about 17,000 solar panels on the columns of a structure that is large enough to protect about 15,000 vehicles from the elements until they are loaded onto trucks or rail cars for delivery. Hail damage costs billions of dollars a year.
The panels are not all connected yet. Construction began in 2024 and the goal was to be done in the first quarter of 2026 but panels are still being installed. It should be finished this spring.
VPS has provided this kind of protection to dealerships, but this is the first large-scale execution for an assembly plant.
The partnership is also working with Georgia Power to optimize energy production and integrate the power generated by the solar panels into the plant. The panels will be capable of supplying 10 percent of the plants energy needs. The project also provided credits under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act until that act was terminated.
Hedge Against Future Storms It is a good hedge against a climate poised to get more volatile. The last three years have been the hottest on record. In 2025, weather and climate disasters caused $115 billion in damage, including 23 events that cost more than $1 billion each, according to the non-profit group Climate Central. Automakers, in their annual financial reports, continue to warn investors that the effects of the warming planet are proving costly. Severe weather damages facilities, vehicles, and impacts the ability to deliver parts and finished vehicles.
The impact is likely to only worsen with the EPAs repeal of its 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions hurt the environment. Throwing out the finding eliminates the regulations it spurred, eliminating the countrys greenhouse gas standards for vehicles. Transportation is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions, and passenger vehicles make up more than half of the total.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/kia-plant-solar-power-hail-protection
