Solar Power Plants – Risk and Loss Prevention
Solar power plants are large, ground-mounted photovoltaic installations whose risk profile, beyond the electrical fire risk of the modules themselves, is shaped mainly by hail, vegetation fire, vandalism and the large number of series-connected inverters.
Risk drivers
Solar power plants consist of thousands of series- and parallel-connected modules whose DC side remains live whenever sunlight falls on the modules, even when disconnected from the inverter – a key difference from most other electrical installations. Large ground-mounted arrays are also exposed to hail, storm and vegetation fire, while their exposed, often unattended location increases the risk of theft and vandalism affecting modules, cabling and inverters.
Protection measures
Key measures include selecting or orienting modules for hail resistance, systematic vegetation management to prevent grass fires beneath module tables, site-appropriate perimeter security, and remote monitoring of inverters together with string-level monitoring for early detection of arc faults. Plants with an attached battery storage system are additionally subject to the protection concepts for stationary lithium-ion storage.
Insurance relevance
Because a large share of the asset value is spread across many similar but individually low-value components, loss assessment differs markedly from conventional power plants, yet accumulation losses from hail or storm can quickly produce high aggregate claims. Property insurers factor in the site’s hail exposure, the quality of remote monitoring and the response time to detected arc faults when pricing the risk.
Standards and codes
- FM Data Sheet 7-106: Ground-Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Power