The Clean Energy Regulator (the agency), conducted a review into the rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) sector in Australia on16 September 2021.
The review was called following unprecedented growth in the rooftop solar PV sector and a range of reports of consumer issues including defective installations, misuse of installer accreditation details, and safety and quality concerns.
There is a section “Clean Energy Regulator inspection program” mentions dc isolator:
The Regulator engages contractors to inspect a statistically significant sample of installations, generally within one year of the installation date. This represents approximately 1% of installations. Inspections are conducted to ensure that the selected systems meet all the installation requirements of the SRES and were eligible for STCs at the time the system was installed. The results are provided to state and territory electrical safety regulators and the CEC to act on any issues found during the inspection.
The Residual Risk Report23 provides analysis on 28,041 inspections for systems installed from 2010 to 2018. The overall conclusion of the report was that safety risks from electrical work associated with rooftop solar PV installations were generally at a low level and similar to what would be expected in other electrical work. The exception was a higher level of potentially unsafe installations owing to water ingress into DC isolator switches. To address this increased risk, the Residual Risk Report made 3 recommendations for states and territories to consider:
1. State and territory governments consider whether the potential safety risks from the requirement for a rooftop DC isolator outweigh the benefits and pursue this in the current review of AS/NZS 5033.
2. State and territory governments consider whether the requirement for a DC isolator near the inverter should be changed to require the isolator be inside the inverter and pursue this in the current review of AS/NZS 4777.
As a leading manufacturer of solar DC switchgears and PV protecting solutions, we think the review would be helpful for a higher level solar rooftop safety and solar market growth.But the solar safety is from adopting right solar products, install and use the solar components in science way via a higher safety level standard adopting.
The most of solar fires in Australia were not caused by DC isolators but potentially unsafe installations owing to water ingress into DC isolator switches and loosing wiring or low quality solar components.
We encourage solar installers to use plug and play DC isolators on the rooftop to avoid the risk from opening the enclosure of DC isolator. And the additional 5 pieces of wiring terminals will go with each new BENY isolators to help solar installers finish more safe and standard cable wiring.
The current problem with the solar rooftop system is that when you cut off the power at home, the high voltage electric energy flowing from the solar panel to the inverter still exists, and the circuit protection cannot be realized. That is why the firefighter safety switch, module level rapid shutdown is required in USA, to protect the firefighters and solar buildings.
A right and simple thing to be done to fix this problem in Australia is making the fire safety switch or module level rapid shutdown as a mandatory requirement for solar rooftop installation.
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