Issues about solar PV system

There are really tow issues here about solar PV system. The first is ignition of a PV from within. I have seen many videos of PVs that have started burning at a microcrack location (the current gets concentrated there) wherein the silicon finally melts through the backing, which might catch a home or building on fire; maybe grass filre at a utility. These are the result of hot spots or lighting strikes, for example. It has to be the EVA that caught filre, the rest being nonflammable.

The other case is a PV that does not start a file but is exposed to a flame. This is what is simulated in a UL "burning brand" test. With today's EVA, designed to withstand hot spots, only Class C can be attained. That means should not be used where people occupy the building, so where you see PVs on homes the fire marshal / building code have provided a waiver. Often they will not do so for residences located too far from town.

But I do not have rate data. I think the industry is poised to experience the same stress when "going from millions to billions" as notebook batteries did. When volumes are small, a small number of catastrophes are over looked as an outlier; When the number gets big and the number of catastrophes becomes noticeable (Sony recalled millions of Li-ion batteries) the media picks it up and it snowballs. There are many pictures and videos of PVs burning, homes destroyed, just not enough to be on Sixty Minutes (yet!).