Firefighter Safety and Photovoltaic Installations Research Project

This research project conducted by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. is to address firefighter vulnerability to electrical and casualty hazards when mitigating a fire involving solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and support systems installed on structures.

As a result of increased use of PV systems in residential and commercial applications, firefighters and fire safety officials have voiced concerns about the potential risks when PV systems may be part of the fire hazard or the impact on fire department operations.

Regarding the increasing use of PV systems,Richard Edgeworth, Chief of Training at the Chicago Fire Department, has stated that “the risk to my firefighters is increasing because we are seeing a significant increase in the installation of PV systems in structures and our firefighters don’t have the standard operating procedures and training to address this increasing risk because we don’t yet fully understand the risk.” 

Though the electrical and fire hazards associated with power generation and distribution is well known, a very limited body of knowledge and insufficient data exists to understand the fire and electrical shock risks to the fire service during a fire event involving PV systems. In addition, most of the research on the fire risks of PV systems has focused on the PV as a fire source due to internal shorting or arcing rather than implications to the fire service during their tactical response during an emergency.

This fire research project developed the empirical data that is needed to quantify the hazards associated with PV installations. This data provides the foundation to modify current or develop new firefighting practices to reduce firefighter death and injury.

Click here or on the image to download the complete UL Research Paper by research engineers Robert Backstrom and David A. Dini, P.E. Please note that the file is 149 pages, and 11MB and may take a few minutes to download depending on your internet connection speed. If you encounter a problem opening this file, be sure you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat installed on your system (click here).