Efectis has developed a new fire test for photovoltaic panels to take into account mounting and other construction materials. Solar panels pose fire risks, in particular because of risk of arcing, sparking or overheating of the DC-AC converter, cables or connect-ors. The Efectis test is an adaptation of the SBI test, and enables testing of the panel as installed, either free standing (air access can accelerate fire) or built into roofing (risk of fire in construction materi-als).
“How fire-safe are solar panels? And how can we determine this?”, Euro-pean Fire Safety Community, 12 March 2020 https://eufiresafety.community/news/263096 and “PV panels: are they suf-ficiently fireproof?”, Efectis 3 July 2019, https://www.efectis.com/en/pv-panels-sufficiently-fireproof/