The number of photovoltaic installations, especially on building roofs and facades, is now quite significant in many industrialized countries, including Italy. As a result, a progressive increase in the number of fires affecting said installations and buildings was also observed. This phenomenon encouraged the definition of a process aimed mainly at developing product regulation and installation methodology, in order to minimize the risk of fire associated to PV systems on building roofs or facades, which involves various actors such as supervisory authorities, regulation bodies, PV module manufacturers, etc.
The research activity summarized here was mainly dedicated to this objective. Its main product was the development and publication of the Technical Report CEI TR 82-89:2021 ‘Fire risk in photovoltaic systems – Fire behavior of photovoltaic modules installed on building roofs: test protocols and classification criteria’, which describes some protocols for evaluating the fire behavior of assemblies made up of photovoltaic module samples and building roofing samples, and proposes some classification criteria (i.e. fire rating). The approach of the Technical Report is to analyze the behavior of the roofing and the photovoltaic module together, considering the “PV roof” sample as a whole and not as separate components (i.e. PV module and roofing), each with its own procedure and classification criteria (criteria followed by pre-existing regulation).
This activity was accompanied by a functionality assessment of Rapid Shutdown Systems (RSS) of the PV systems in operation in the event of fire, and by a non-destructive diagnostics of PV modules for the detection of defects or forms of degradation that can influence the risk of fire.