NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 11

A LT E R N AT I V E E N E R GY

SOLAR SAFETY

A CALIFORNIA SOLAR POWER REQUIREMENT
RAISES FIRE SERVICE CONCERNS
By Angelo Verzoni

GETT Y IMAGES

I

n May, the California Energy Commission

voted to require all new homes built in the
Golden State by 2020 to have some form of
solar power generation. Builders can either
put solar panels on individual homes or offer a
shared solar power system that serves a group of homes.
While the decision furthers the state's reputation as the
country's leader in clean-energy policies, it also concerns fire
service leaders who worry that the requirement could affect
firefighter safety as well as fire safety in general.
As a fire captain in Riverside County, near Los Angeles,
Dan Olson has dealt with solar panels for several years.
Although he hasn't experienced anything too terrible related
to the technology in Riverside, he's heard horror stories from
fellow firefighters in other California jurisdictions about
nighttime fires involving solar-paneled homes that have been
extinguished, only to reignite when the sun rises and sends
electricity pulsing through the photovoltaic (PV) systems. "We
tell our guys to cover the panels at night and post-fire knockdown. During active fire suppression, we tell them to avoid
the panels with a series of 'do nots'-do not remove, do not
walk on, and so on," said Olson, who teaches his firefighters

about PV systems with slideshows and
other training materials.
Educating firefighters on handling
PV systems is a goal of the state's fire
service and one that Olson sees as its
responsibility as the 2020 requirement
approaches. "We're seeing more of these
solar homes and occupancies," he said.
"It's like the automotive industry-10
years ago you hardly saw a hybrid car
on the road, and now you see them
everywhere. With PV we have the
responsibility to make sure that if we
run into it, we know how to safely mitigate it, shut it off, and deal with it if an incident occurs."
The need for education is driven not only by the
impending requirement but also by the technology's rapid
development, which is making it harder to tell when a roof is
solar-powered. "Look at Tesla's new building-integrated solar
roof system-you can't tell the difference between which
one's the shingle and which one's the [solar] tile," said Kevin
Reinertson, Riverside County deputy fire marshal. "So a lot
more has to come out of the training side of it." Reinertson
said these types of issues make the new California solar
requirement "a huge concern" for the fire service, as they'll
presumably be faced with more and different versions of
solar technology after it takes effect.
According to The New York Times, other states like New
Jersey and Massachusetts have considered implementing
similar regulations that require new buildings be solar-ready,
but the California announcement is "by far the boldest and
most consequential of any."
As the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources
continues, PV systems, as well as battery-powered energy
storage systems (ESS), are expected to become more common,
a change already reflected in NFPA codes and standards and
other resources. Codes such as NFPA 1, Fire Code, NFPA 70®,
National Electrical Code®, and NFPA 5000®, Building Construction and Safety Code®, all address PV systems; a new standard
addressing ESS-NFPA 855, Installation of Stationary Energy
Storage Systems-will be available as soon as early 2019. NFPA
has also developed ESS training for first responders, and the
Fire Protection Research Foundation has published several
studies on PV and ESS.
Safety information for first responders on both technologies is available on nfpa.org.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2018

Contents
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Contents
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