A study on fire risks to firefighters in the building with photovoltaic system

Among all the available renewable energy sources, solar energy is the most abundant and is an inexhaustible source of clean energy. Moreover, photovoltaic (PV) module technology has been widely used in modern industry to directly convert solar energy into electricity to meet people's demands. The photovoltaic (PV) industry and solar cell panel installation capacity are rapidly expanding in Taiwan. In practice, many factors can cause fire hazards with PV systems, and this danger increases as such systems scale up, with high voltages of 600 to 1000 V posing a greater risk than less powerful systems. However, a limited body of knowledge and insufficient data exists for the fire service community to fully understand the risks of PV system catching fire to the extent that standard operational procedures have been developed in Taiwan. The object of this study is to document firefighter vulnerability to electrical and casualty hazards when mitigating a fire in a building involving photovoltaic system. The results of the survey would provide a technical basis for the fire service to examine their equipment, tactics, standard operating procedures and training content.