Will an EMP burst kill solar panels?

[melensdad]

Just curious but are solar panels subject to damage from an EMP burst?

I presume the inverter would blow out.

What about the batteries?

 

[longbarrel]

I don't believe the panels would be hurt(just sand) Don't believe the batteries would be affected either. The inverter on the other hand, probably gonna have a bad day, but maybe not?

 

[melensdad]

I don't believe the panels would be hurt(just sand) Don't believe the batteries would be affected either. The inverter on the other hand, probably gonna have a bad day, but maybe not?

What if the inverter is located in a closet in the basement of the house?

Or would the inverter have to be inside a Faraday cage?

And would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around a working inverter that has wires coming into the cage from the solar array to the inverter and also wires to the batteries?

 

[tom1025]

I think the batteries would still be good.

 

[jeremy]

Just curious but are solar panels subject to damage from an EMP burst?

I presume the inverter would blow out.

What about the batteries?

Interesting question. I believe the Panels would be fine. But, I would be interested in finding a Good Info Source for information either way.

The Batteries should be fine, as well as the Inverter. I'll have to dig around through my Manuals, Books, and Notes for a better answer to that.

 

[jeremy]

What if the inverter is located in a closet in the basement of the house?

Or would the inverter have to be inside a Faraday cage?

And would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around a working inverter that has wires coming into the cage from the solar array to the inverter and also wires to the batteries?

A Faraday will not work if you have whatever is inside of it hooked up to the outside of the Faraday Cage. It has to be an Isolator to perform well.

It is less about the Location and more about the length of the Wiring/Circuits catching the pulse.

 

[Hop]

I do not think a panel will survive. They are made from a semiconductor material.

 

[mr.steve]

A Faraday will not work if you have whatever is inside of it hooked up to the outside of the Faraday Cage. It has to be an Isolator to perform well.

It is less about the Location and more about the length of the Wiring/Circuits catching the pulse.

Jeremy is on target The EMP will induce an elecrical current in any wire it flows by. The stronger the pulse the higher the current. There are some products out there that claim to be "hardened" against EMP currents, 'course you'll have to trust the manufacturer on that claim.

Photo-voltaic panels would probably suffer due to interconnection wiring and metal frames - EMP induced current can and will arc across if strong enough.

IMO, the best defense against EMP damage is to have a complete back up set of equipment buried deep underground.
The senario I hear most often is an EMP from a high altitude nuclear blast. that's my

 

[threefiftyfour]

Damn, why does mr.steve have to be right? Life would be easier if everything was lollipops and gumdrops. Oh and bacon!

 

[actaeon277]

Damage MOSTLY affects semi-conductors. Closer in, more types damaged. Wires basically short circuit your protection. Faraday protects from Compton Effect. Wire sensitive to MHD.

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Bury whatever you can. IMHO.

Solar panels are not semi-conductors; they are binary photo-voltaic cells. They are quite passive, but might conduct themselves to death if the blast has a lot of visible-light wave-length energy, plus some potential arcing from their frames. If the frames are grounded there is less potential for arcing. As with lightning, but to a magnitude of -10¹º of energy, lightning being the higher, the weaker EMP pulse behaves like all static electricity, and seeks a ground. On a cloudy day the EMP would even dissipate some of it energy between itself and the clouds, like cloud-to-cloud lightning sometimes does. Burying as much of the wiring as possible might help dissipate some of the EMP electric energy before it gets into the electronic junk.

I do not think a panel will survive. They are made from a semiconductor material.

 

[mr.steve]

This post got me thinking again about electro-magnetic pulse protection.
Which of course I Googled.

My quick search turned up 3,860,000 results! I've copied a link to a commercial site with good information on the EMP threat:
http://www.protectiongroup.com/Military/Threat-Assessment

Also a white paper:
http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf

 

[shibumiseeker]

An EMP that will damage solar panels will leave you not caring about them.

They've suffered direct lightning strikes with no damage. Batteries will not be affected. An inverter probably will not be affected as it is designed to handle very high currents, but it's the most vulnerable part of the system, and I don't consider it that vulnerable if installed properly. I lost an inverter due to a nearby (20' away) lightning strike and I traced the failure mode to bad grounding.

The key is long runs of wire which act as antenna. The longer the wire the higher the induced voltages and currents. This is why EMP is a problem for power distribution networks and switching equipment. The other primary problem with EMP is sensitive electronics which are prone to damage because the interconnections within the semiconductors is so small (wires a few microns across) that they cannot handle induced current.

Folks can debate the issue all they want, I'm not going to be drawn into a Longbow style discussion of the "what ifs" as I consider that level of an EMP attack to be a very low probability event and I'm not going to spend much time worrying about it. I am FAR more worried about losing my system to a tornado.

 

[melensdad]

An EMP that will damage solar panels will leave you not caring about them.

They've suffered direct lightning strikes with no damage. Batteries will not be affected. An inverter probably will not be affected as it is designed to handle very high currents, but it's the most vulnerable part of the system, and I don't consider it that vulnerable if installed properly. I lost an inverter due to a nearby (20' away) lightning strike and I traced the failure mode to bad grounding.

. . . I am FAR more worried about losing my system to a tornado.

Thanks, that seems like a common sense reply.

 

[mr.steve]

Folks can debate the issue all they want, I'm not going to be drawn into a Longbow style discussion of the "what ifs" as I consider that level of an EMP attack to be a very low probability event and I'm not going to spend much time worrying about it. I am FAR more worried about losing my system to a tornado.

You've got the right attitude there. awareness is one thing and paranoia is an other. We've alway lived here with tornado threats and with climate changes that threat is shifting. Our level of preparedness should be based on realistic assessments of catastrophic senarios.

 

[longbarrel]

What if the inverter is located in a closet in the basement of the house?

Or would the inverter have to be inside a Faraday cage?

And would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around a working inverter that has wires coming into the cage from the solar array to the inverter and also wires to the batteries?

Don't think a Faraday cage will help with an EMP.

 

[wolfts01]

My bet would be on the inverter as the weak link, but it would depend on the type. Most will surely have semiconductor circuits in them, but I'm not sure they are as sensitive to EMF as a microchip. Anything with a microchip will probably die, and more things have microchips in them every day.

You could always source an electro-mechanical inverter, or just be content with DC power.

 

[CarmelHP]

Don't think a Faraday cage will help with an EMP.

A Faraday cage is protection from an EMP but if there are still wires connected it's not a Farady cage, the wires are conducting from outside the box to the inside defeating the purpose. The equipment must be isolated from the charge.

 

[Walkersdlx]

I was thinking about this subject earlier this week. Anyways, what is a good cheap setup? 500 to 1000ish and what could i power with it fans, AC,Heater....?

 

[Enforcer831]

Why not keep the solar panel in a mesh based faraday cage on top of the main faraday cage? Sure there will be some loss depending on the mesh used, but it could theoretically still work.