Firefighters And Solar Panels

The amount of electricity generated by solar energy is increasing exponentially.

Firefighters and solar panels.

However solar panels also present some new and challenging risks especially to firefighters. The rising popularity of solar energy also requires firefighters to develop better training for emergency scenarios involving solar panels. Since solar panels are everywhere from home roofs to roadside signs to supermarkets firefighter training is intended to deal with all the challenges that may arrive when fighting fire with solar products involved. Much inaccurate information about pv and firefighter safety has been published on the internet recently even to the point of recommendations to let it burn if solar panels are spotted on a roof.

In laboratory based fire tests of roof assemblies 1 2 the maximum allowable fire spread is between approximately 20 and 40 ft 2 1 9 and 3 7 m 2 depending on whether an a b or c rating is desired. 10 17 16 1 2 courtesy of u s. Today in the united states demand for solar is at an all time high and the fire. Solar panels pose an extremely low fire hazard.

These questions pose a problem for modern firefighters and are some of the reasons the madison fire department applied for grants to install solar photovoltaic panels at their station. Another big concern that bothers most people is how well firefighters are capable of controlling a house fire with solar panels. In fact photon magazine has recorded no more than 1 incident per 10 000 installations so a house equipped with properly installed solar panels will not catch fire. The manufacturers of solar panels state that anything that reduces or blocks the sunlight from reaching the panel surface will reduce energy production.

Solar power 101 and the fire service. Firefighters and solar panel safety. Regulations must be unified and adhered to so that renewable energy companies in all fifty states are in compliance with research based federal safety recommendations. Marc van de velde a loss prevention expert at xl catlin discusses the issues.

In any event there are a few basic precautions you can take just in case. When fire departments arrive to a house fire where solar panels are interconnected to the power grid they have two options to kill the power on your solar panels and both ways are very quick. That forces the panels to.