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Solar Industry Must Wake Up to Risk Of Fire as Studies Indicate Notable Rise: Report

The solar industry must take action to protect its assets, as studies indicate solar farm fires are on the rise. This is according to a report released by Firetrace International.

July 27, 2022. By News Bureau

The solar industry must take action to protect its assets, as studies indicate solar farm fires are on the rise. This is according to a report released by Firetrace International.

'Hidden Danger - why solar farm fire risk could be greater than you think,' reveals the industry is potentially underestimating the threat of fire, urging it to rapidly address the issue, particularly as cumulative installed PV capacity increased by approximately one quarter in 2021, with the number of fires increasing more quickly than growth of installations in some markets.

In Australia, for example, while statistics from the Australian PV Institute show that, between 2018 and 2020, PV installations increased less than three-fold, data from Fire and Rescue New South Wales (NSW) reveals that the number of solar fires attended by firefighters in the same period rose six-fold.

Ross Paznokas, Global Business Development Manager – Clean Energy, Firetrace International, says: “With the number of PV installations dramatically increasing around the world, taking these steps will be vital in reducing fire risk, which is why we launched our best-in-class fire suppression technology into the solar industry earlier this year.

We’re drawing on our experience in the wind industry, where the technology has already been installed more than 23,000 times in turbines across the world, and are working hard to support the solar industry in understanding the causes of solar farm fires, and gaining confidence to share this data so that we can learn from fire events and establish best-practice.”

Tags:

Solar PV

Solar industry

Solar farms

Firetrace International

Fire

Installation