155 - New Guideline for PV Fire Safety with Grunde Jomaas

Fire Science Show

Misconceptions in fire science are a strange thing. You present countless proof, publish research papers, and carry conversations, and yet… they live their own lives—spreading with no control and cluttering communication. One space is full of them—the fire safety of photovoltaic installations on flat roofs. In the Fire Science Show, we already had two very powerful episodes on PV—one with Jens Kristensen and one more recently with Reidar Stølen.

In today's episode, we highlight a new guideline document published by the team at FRISSBE led by Prof. Grunde Jomaas. I invited Grunde to walk me through their document, and I took this opportunity to learn the origins, sources and inspirations for all the aspects they covered. The guideline takes you through ignition, fire spread, building roof construction and firefighting, giving a unique holistic overhaul of the topic. Most importantly, it is short, concise, and written in the most approachable way. This is a really good example of how communication in fire science should look.

You can access the guideline directly here: https://www.frissbe.eu/upload/files/FRISSBE-ZAG%20BAPV%20Fire%20Safety%20Guideline%20May%202024%20v3.pdf

To complement this piece, you may also read this article on the background: Rus, N., Jomaas, G. (2024) PV guidelines – are the recommendations sufficiently evidence-based?

As my personal recommendation, Grunde is a top communicator on LinkedIn, and you should follow him. He also runs a weekly newsletter, Burning Matters. I highly recommend this resource!

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Chapters

1. Clearing Misconceptions on Photovoltaic Fire Safety (00:00:00)

2. Discussing Rooftop Fire Ignition Hazards (00:13:54)

3. Roof Construction and Fire Dynamics (00:26:01)

4. Fire Engineering Challenges and Solutions (00:41:11)

5. Fire Safety Systems and Challenges (00:47:52)