Solar power has emerged as a critical renewable energy source, but commercial-scale solar arrays face a little-known fire risk with potentially major financial and environmental impacts. Innovations like PVSTOP seek to make the solar industry safer by containing and suppressing…
Solar-panel fire risks and the opportunities to improve safety
Recently solar panels have been back in Australian headlines after the release of statistics from Fire & Rescue New South Wales (FRNSW) showed a significant increase in solar-panel-system fires. These statistics reported that there has been a five-fold surge in…
Solar panels and the DC danger zone
Solar panels represent a significant risk to firefighters and emergency services personnel and current Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) do not adequately address the increasingly obvious safety gaps. Whether responding to a solar panel fire, responding to storm or flood damage…
Solar panels and the DC danger zone – reducing risk factors – Part 2
In Part 1 of this article featured in the last edition we discussed the rise of solar energy from a cottage industry just a few decades ago to becoming a genuine mainstream electrical source. We discussed how legislation, safety and…
Solar panels and the DC danger zone – reducing risk factors – Part 1
The growth of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has been exponential for the past two decades. In the last 10 years especially, the world has seen solar PV evolve from a pure niche market of small scale applications towards becoming a…