Fire a major hidden danger for solar farms

Xtechi no sama, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A recent report by Firetrace International found that the solar industry is potentially underestimating the risk of fire at solar farms, partly due to a shortage of data on solar farm fires. The report also said that research into the issue has given rise to suspicions that fires at solar farms have been under-reported.

solar asset owners and major OEMs are reluctant to discuss or publicly acknowledge a loss attributable to fire. This means that there is a lack of data and definitive case studies to draw insights from.

With regard to data that is actually available, Paznokas said that the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office cited a study conducted by European testing and certification company TÜV Rheinland, titled Assessing Fire Risks in Photovoltaic Systems and Developing Safety Concepts for Risk Minimization. The study found that in approximately half of 430 cases of fire or heat damage in photovoltaic (PV) systems, the PV system itself was considered the “cause or probable cause.”

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