There are quite a number of occasion where lightning strike solar panel. I wonder why lightning protection is not installed at the solar farm.
LIghtening striks, on tall objects. In H.V.A.C, E.H.V.A.C or H.V.D.C the transmission and distribution is at high voltage with tall transmission tower and poles which increased the chances, and the lightening, and surge voltage transient may stress the insulation of high voltage system hence shilding wire on top of tower, and the protection(arestor/suppresor) are needed. Normally the solar farms are almost at ground level, all panels bodily grounded, and system working voltage are considerably low, hence protection is not needed for lightning.
I disagree.
It is true that solar farms are flat and therefore do not trigger upward lightning, like wind farms for instance. However, solar farms are usually not surrounded by elevated environment, because of shaddow issues and therefore they can still be struck by downward lightning. Especially when wind farms occupy a are very large area and are located in regions with high ground flash densities, a lightning strike is quite likly.
Even if the panel tables are build of metal and are interconnected to each other, it can be quite ambitious to conduct a lightning current safe to ground, esepccially when there is no grounding system or high soil resistivity.
Also there are many induction loops as well as capacitive coupling, which may lead to spark over and damage panals and inverters.
Today it is advisable to do a risk analysis in order to evaluate the economic loss vs the likelihood of a lightning strike.
Hello,
Somehow I may agree with the prevoius answers. However, solar farms are not situated at elevated sites due to unclear sky and their sites are cleared (out of trees) which keep them out of strikes. So, for the stroke solar farms it can be due to indirect strikes brcause the panels are laid close to the ground level.
I entirely agree with Martin Hanning; now, if you are in Lima-Peru where Ng=0!!!! Them no risk analys is needed! However if you are close to the Catacombe river in Venezuela, Ng=100, or in central Africa, you better make a risk analysis; it also depends on the size of your PV instalations and the desired reliability.
may be the research is not completed in this field.the following paper shows that lightning can cause sever damage to solar farm equipment.
Analysis of the Lightning Transient Response of the Earthing System of Large-Scale Ground-Mounted PV Plants.
There is an increasing number of solar farm in Malaysia and in fact, there are al cases where lightning strikes directly on the panel. Some solar farms are built at a wide area with various elevation. So the most risky area must be the most elevated or in othe word the closest to the thundercloud. If there is no lightning protection, this must a new area to be researched.
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