| Work Detail |
Compiled by an international research group, the best practices were culled from all available guidelines published by national agencies, regulatory bodies and trade associations.
Researchers at Universiti Putra Malaysia have defined a series of fire safety practices that solar installers should follow when deploying photovoltaic systems on residential rooftops.
“Improper installation practices have been identified as a common factor contributing to fire hazards from PV systems,” the corresponding author of the research, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd Tohir, told pv magazine . “This human error can be due to an unintentional action or a deliberate violation of procedure. The first, mainly due to the inexperience of the installers or simple slips of experienced workers. While the latter, due to time pressure and their ignorance of the consequences of fire safety. Regardless of the reason, both can be attributed to a lack of fire safety knowledge.”
According to Tohir, the annual frequency of fire incidents in photovoltaic installations is 0.029 fires per MW. “Although the figure does not seem alarming, however, with the increase in global demand for photovoltaic systems as a green technology, if the problem is neglected and not curbed, the failure rate is expected to increase considerably in the coming years” , He said. “That is why our work is considered important to develop safe practices and share knowledge on fire safety management during the installation of photovoltaic systems, since the lack of understanding of the fire risks associated with photovoltaics can have serious consequences. in the long term,” he adds.
Scholars systematically reviewed the fire safety practices outlined in 40 publicly accessible PV installation guidelines. These include PV system manufacturers publications and installation guidelines, as well as best practice manuals. “It is worth mentioning that more than half of the selected installation guidelines that were reviewed come from national agencies, regulatory bodies and national associations, and the majority are from the United States,” the research team notes.
The proposed fire safety practices were classified into 10 groups based on different factors: General practices to ensure that the photovoltaic system is designed only by qualified contractors; site survey including size, shade management, access road, slope, orientation and location; roof structure and material; signaling systems for all PV equipment, including PV input and output, conduit, wiring, inverter, enclosures, combiner, box, and isolator switches; roof waterproofing and flashing; electrical wiring and grounding system; Assembly assembly, ventilation and photovoltaic panels; combiner box and connectors; DC/AC inverter;
"Before the installation of the photovoltaic system, it is important to carry out a site evaluation to avoid the shading effect and determine the best orientation to obtain the maximum performance of the photovoltaic system," the scientists point out. "In addition, good ventilation and air circulation around the photovoltaic modules can prevent the phenomenon of hot spots (hot spots)." According to them, many fire accidents originate from DC insulators due to water ingress into the enclosure due to ignorant practices during installation. "However, the number of publications highlighting the installation of DC bushings as dos and donts is relatively small," they noted.
Best practices were presented in the article “ Development of fire safety best practices for rooftops grid-connected photovoltaic systems (PV) installation using systematic review methodology ”, published in Sustainable Cities and Society . |
