Are solar panels safe enough?

During the storms solar panels came loose in several places. In IJburg Friday, a 16-year-old girl seriously injured by a flying solar panel, in Belgium there was a death. It raises questions about the safety of solar panels. The Amsterdam metro was diverted on Monday because of loose solar panels on the roof of Spaklerweg station in East. According to a GVB spokesman, several panels had ended up on the tracks.

 "Due to clattering on the roof, we think other panels are also loose and have decided not to run any more metros past there," the spokesperson reported Monday afternoon. The strong winds made repair work on the roof risky at that time. They would not take place until the evening at the earliest. Last Friday solar panels were also blown off roofs on IJburg. One of them hit a 16-year-old schoolgirl on the Bert Haanstrakade. She was reportedly seriously injured and was taken to the ic. Solar panels also flew around elsewhere in the city, without causing any more casualties.  

Near Ghent in Belgium, a man died on Saturday after a solar panel blown away hit his head.

Maarten Poorter, district chairman in Oost, is shocked by the incident at IJburg and has asked the emergency services to check the panels that were not blown off the roof in question. The case raises for him the broader question of whether there is sufficient attention to the safety of solar panels. "Is the supervision in order? That may need to be looked at closely."

If solar panels are properly attached, they are storm-proof, assures Hans Lambrechts, CEO of Sunprojects, one of the largest installers in the Netherlands. Compared to flat roofs, such as on IJburg, it is easier on pitched roofs to secure panels in such a way that the wind cannot get a hold of them. On flat roofs, the so-called thrust of the wind can cause problems if the wind gets under the panels and exerts pressure from there. Lambrechts: "Something can always happen, such as a localised whirlwind that rips away an entire roof. If there are panels on top of that, of course they will be lost too. But the maxim is that solar panels can withstand a storm."

According to Lambrechts, properly attached solar panels can withstand wind force 12 or 13. The Eunice storm came down to wind force 11 on Friday. "You then have to adhere to the rules of the Building Regulations and the NEN standard for panel installations. From those, calculation models flow that allow you to check how wind-resistant the panels are." But consumers are not obliged to use an installation company affiliated to the trade association Technisch Nederland and can also do it themselves. Nor is an independent inspection mandatory.

The Amsterdam city council has big ambitions in the field of solar panels. Late this year there would be one million on roofs in the city to lie. The counter now stands at 500,000. In addition to three deaths, several dozen people in the Amsterdam region were injured as a result of the storm. About 25 people were reported injured in the Amsterdam UMC alone.

Source: Link to the publication in the Parool by Bas Soetenhorst