Firefighters Against Solar Panels

That s good news for a warming planet.

Firefighters against solar panels.

Why firefighters are scared of solar rooftops solar panels are partly to blame for a warehouse in new jersey burning down last week the local fire chief says. Another big concern that bothers most people is how well firefighters are capable of controlling a house fire with solar panels. How do solar panels catch on fire. 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.

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. Today in the united states demand for solar is at an all time high and the fire service must become educated and trained on the. A properly designed and installed solar panel system with correctly operating equipment presents no fire hazard to your home. Just like the 44 000 electrical fires that happen every year a solar panel fire is the result of a malfunction.

In actual roof fires with roof mounted solar panels fire damage has involved areas of between 1 000 and 183 000 ft 2 93 and 17 000 m 2. 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. 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. In the most extreme case the fire spread to the inside and destroyed the entire building see fig.

That forces the panels to. Marc van de velde a loss prevention expert at xl catlin discusses the issues. The rising popularity of solar energy also requires firefighters to develop better training for emergency scenarios involving solar panels. However solar panels also present some new and challenging risks especially to firefighters.

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