Rooftop solar panels present problems for firefighters but don't ramp up insurance rates

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Firefighters are wary of climbing on roofs with solar panels or spraying water on them, but insurance companies do not regard buildings with them on as presenting an increased risk

by MIKE MULHERN

That solar panel on your barn roof can be a little like a live wire you can't shut off. That poses a problem for firefighters responding to fires in any building supporting a solar array, but it doesn't affect your insurance rates.

John Gorman, president of the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) points out that, while solar is relatively new in Canada, it has been around for 50 years and is deployed all over the world.  

"Last year in May at a certain point," Gorman says, "Germany was producing 50 per cent of its power from solar panels on roofs. Well-developed standards and practices for dealing with solar panels have been developed elsewhere and adopted here. I have a five kilowatt system on my own home and it has not had an impact on my insurance rates whatever. That's based on the experience they (insurance companies) have had in other countries."

In an email, Glenn Cooper, senior manager, public relations and social media with Aviva insurance, agreed. "I have spoken to some team members here at Aviva," he wrote. "We do not rate buildings with solar panels differently due to any increased risk. However, the premiums for a property that adds solar panels may increase as we would need to ensure that the replacement value of the building includes those sometimes expensive and complicated systems."

The problem firefighters have with solar panels on roofs was highlighted recently when a part-time fire chief in Huron County told the local council that the way volunteers respond to such a fire will be up to individual commanders.

"There is a possibility that, if a structure has a massive solar panel system on the roof, we wouldn't be fighting the fire," part-time chief Steve Cooke was quoted as saying. "We're not spraying water on 600 volts," he added, "that's all there is to it." That DC voltage can't just be shut off at the switch because the panels continue to generate electricity as long as they are exposed to a light source.

Cooke's observations highlighted a problem facing every fire department, large and small. The way departments are handling the problem, including Huron, is through safety education. That's one thing that Peter McBride of the Ottawa Fire Services says is transferable to all departments.

McBride, division chief of safety and innovation in Ottawa, says the service has urban and rural response, both trained in safety but with vastly different operational capabilities. What works in Ottawa won't work in small-town Ontario. "They don't have the logistical response capacity. They don't have the staffing or equipment," McBride says.

The training fire departments are rolling out includes information contained in Ontario Ministry of Labour Firefighters Guidance Note # 6-34. The ministry says electric shock is the "primary hazard for firefighters" dealing with Photovoltaic (PV) systems. The problem is "solar panels will always remain energized as long as they are exposed to a source of light."

The source can be the sun, but it can also be emergency lighting equipment used to illuminate a fire scene after dark. When PV panels are involved, a fire is then considered an electrical, or Class C fire, which usually means water, foam and other conductive agents can't be used.

Full-time and volunteer firefighters from all over the province train at the Ontario Fire College in Gravenhurst. Guy Degange, acting principal of the college, says it does safety training for people fighting fires in buildings with rooftop solar panels.

"We treat this as an electrical (Class C) fire," Degange says. "It's a course very much about electrical safety," he notes, adding, "We discourage people from accessing the roof. It is not a safe place to be with this equipment on it."

McBride describes firefighters as "consequence managers" and he notes every new technology presents surprises and challenges for material science in the fire service.

"They stopped using asbestos in the 1970s," he says, "but all that material is there to haunt us now. When it burns, we have a big asbestos problem, so the industrial hygiene associated with that is really coming into play."

He points out that the latest solar panels use carbon nanotechnology to enhance efficiency but that may have consequences for firefighters too. "We actually do not know how these materials behave over their life cycle," McBride says.

Ontario's Electrical Standards Authority (ESA) does the final inspection before a solar panel is connected to the grid, home or facility. Ted Olechna, ESA's chief engineer and director of codes and standards, says components that make up the solar installation – panels, inverters, cables – are inspected by a number of agencies before ESA is called in to give final approval. "We inspect the final product once it's put together. We inspect and authorize the connection," he says.

While there are technologies which claim to solve the solar-roof fire problem by isolating individual panels, Olechna says no such technology has yet been mandated for Ontario installations, although "we are aware of a bunch of technologies."

One offering is from Australia. The Remote Solar Isolator (RSI) isolates individual panels in an array, preventing them from combining to generate DC voltage. The technology, the company claims, offers firefighters safe access to the roof where solar panels are installed.

In an email, the Australian company said they have not sold any systems in Canada and do not yet have a Canadian distributor. BF