PV Panels and NEMP effects

James · December 2006

OK, here is an off the wall topic:
Would the EMP effects from a high attitude nuclear detonation adversely affect PV's?
The question came up recently within a group at the local restaurant breakfast counter as they talked about terrorist attacks on our country....
Being that they are actually semiconductor devices, I suspect they may be vulnerable, however, on the other hand. they have a larger physical area than discret transistors or intergrated circuits (chips), and most likely bettter grounding.
Would that help or hurt the chances of damage? Does anyone have an informed theory on this?

mike95490 · December 2006

Re: PV Panels and NEMP effects

Good thought. The longer the wire, larger the device, the more EMP signal is picked up. It's like induced voltage from a nearby lighting strike, only instead of a 30 foot radius, it's hundreds of miles. The factors are wire length, impedence and the semiconductor breakdown voltage. I don't know what the specs are for a modern solar panel, if it could take several thousand induced volts, and not fry. Likely the blocking diodes, inverters, and charge controlers will be lost.
What may happen is small areas of the panels arc over, and then you have a 190W panel, instead of a 200W panel, because of a bunch of pinholes fried in the panel. Incandesent light bulbs will be all you can find to run with it.

Your mileage may vary, contents will settle, sold by weight.

[update] standard lighting protection will likely not help, as the charges are induced directly in the panel traces. Large panels designed for series use, and high voltages, will likely fare better. Edges near the panels frames may get fried as the voltage arcs to the grounded rails You may loose half the panel capacity, and ALL the blocking & bypass diodes.
Battery banks will likely survive, unless the induced voltage in the 90' of array wireing turns the shed into a mess of boiled batteries (exploded in the 1/100 sec the pulse lasts) and melted controllers / inverters.
It won't be a pretty picture. Survialists keep spare panels, radios, and other electronics in a faraday shield.
EMP taked about here, http://www.disastershelters.net/weapons.php and check Wikipedia too

niel · December 2006

Re: PV Panels and NEMP effects

in a nutshell, they probably won't survive it without measures that the military would take to protect some of its highend equipment and even that's not a guarantee.

PV Panels and NEMP effects

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