large-scale PV operation health risks?

System

In searching the Internet for information regarding health risks of PV systems, little comes up about operation risks and EMFs. An earlier thread on this site dealt with the negligible risks of a home installation, but nothing larger....

Here's my question: About six months ago, my workplace installed a large system with thousands of panels on the roof directly above my office, including 4 or 5 inverters, also installed on the building's roof and spaced out over its dimensions. The panels cover virtually the entire roof. I believe the system generates hundreds of volts of electricity, close to 500 maybe? The roof is about 12 feet high, I think.

Is this sort of larger-scale installation, which generates enough electricity to feed hundreds of houses (an entire neighborhood) spread out over the space of at most five small houses, at all a health risk in its operation?

I am concerned about EMFs from both the DC and especially the inverters, since so much power is being generated. My office has a large window to the outside, and as I mentioned, the ceiling isn't particularly high, or shielded. Those of us who work there are in the building for 8-10 hours/day.

Thanks!

mike95490

Re: large-scale PV operation health risks?

DC (the type of power from the panels) does not really produce any "EMF" since it's not changeing. You have more "EMF" in an average bathroom or bedroom, than a roof full of PV's would produce.

As to the inverters, it's about the same as the power lines hidden in the walls of your house, only the inverters are 12' away, as the EMF field drops inverse of the square of the distance, you should worry more about a car with bad brakes hitting you.

Windsun

Re: large-scale PV operation health risks?

You would probably get more EMF from your cell phone than from a 1 megawatt PV array.

Since as Mike said, you only get EMF from a changing current source (AC), and panels are DC, the EMF is almost unmeasurable.

BB.

Re: large-scale PV operation health risks?

What Mike said...

To add to this--your bigger source of EMF (besides the wiring in your office/cube) is the transformers/distribution/sub-station room for your office/complex...

A couple decades ago--during a remodel, they changed a storage room into an office that backed up against a 3 foot cube power transformer for the building.

One of the software engineers had her computer monitor placed right on the other side of the drywall from that large transformer... Her monitor would "swim" because of the EMF from the transformer. Besides wondering about possible health issues--the room was unusable as an office because of its effect on the monitor. I don't remember what eventually was decided--but IIRC, the office was converted back into storage because of the issue.

Now-a-days, with flat screen monitors which are not really affected by 60Hz magnetic fields--nobody would ever notice high EMF because of nearby transformers/high current wiring.

In the end, if you are more than 5-10 feet from your building's main power room (and solar inverter installation)--you are probably just fine and will not be otherwise affected by any 60Hz EMF from this source.

-Bill

niel

Re: large-scale PV operation health risks?

don't even worry about it as you aren't really seeing much of anything. background radiation sources like the soil, the moon, and remants from the big bang are probably stronger than you'd see from that pv system. do worry about close proximity cell phone operations over long timeperiods. a final note on this is that the effect of any source is influenced greatly by the frequency of it and of course the amount of power over time. i get far more emf radiation from the 69,000v ac lines on the poles across the street from me than what that pv system would do to you and i'm not worried about those 69kv lines. you most likely got far more from watching tv too and excepting the cell phone, i don't think there's any worries here about it. come to think of it, you probably get far more from your car's alternator than that pv system.
ps-don't be scared by the term radiation as we aren't talking an atom bomb, but radiation as like from many radio and tv stations. being you don't seem to have high knowledge about the system, i would advise you not to touch it because it can have a shock hazard or you can also damage part of that system.