A Study on Fire Risks to Firefighters in the Building with Photovoltaic System

• Main Author: 洪國展
• Other Authors: 吳村木
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2k8452

碩士 === 高苑科技大學 === 機械與自動化工程研究所 === 106 === Among all the available renewable energy sources, solar energy is the most abundant and is an inexhaustible source of clean energy. Moreover, photovoltaic (PV) module technology has been widely used in modern industry to directly convert solar energy into electricity to meet people’s demands. In practice, many factors can cause fire hazards with PV systems, and this danger increases as such systems scale up, with high voltages of 600 to 1000 V posing a greater risk than less powerful systems fire. In this study, we are interested in investigating the awareness of the firefighters and PV manufacturer on the PV fire via questionnaire survey. The content of this questionnaire contained 5 dimensions of perception of fire experience, discussion of fire risk factors, fire rescue countermeasures, safety management system and related codes and standards. A total of 59 questions were designed for the questionnaire. This questionnaire was provided to the in-service firemen to fill in, and 280 valid samples were collected. The average working experiences of the respondents was 10.5 years; a majority of them (60.3%) held a university degree, and only 26% had involved in the PV fire fighting among the respondents, while 76% agreed that the probability of fire occurrence in PV system was very high and up to 91% of the respondents felt that there is a significant risk in the PV fire accident. According to the survey results, it was found that fire accidents occurred most frequently at the circuit, at a rate of about 39%, much more than at PV panel (32%) and inverter (23%). the maximum factor leading to PV fire is high current overheating (44%), followed by junction box failure (35%). With respect to the fire resistance of PV, nearly 97% of respondents thought that there was still a big improvement space at present. In addition, only 30% of respondents thought that they understood the correct rescue procedures of PV fire, while 97% thought that the PV safety professional training shall be included in the training program. As shown in the survey results for the manufacturer questionnaire, 71% of the respondents showed that they highly agreed to wear the electrical insulation equipment in the rescue of PV fire and 88% strongly agreed to adopt the fire protection design on PV system. However, 58% of the respondents believed that it was not necessary to equip with additional rescue equipment in the site of PV fire. 42% of the respondents thought that when the fires caused by the PV module failure, toxic gas generated by PV fire is not a fatal factor, and consequently no special arrangement of specialized rescue equipment on the PV system was needed. But, all of PV module manufacturers thought that the firefighter training program should be strengthened for decreasing the fire hazard of a PV fire. The results of the survey could provide a technical basis for the fire service to examine their equipment, tactics, standard operating procedures and training content.