Solar Panels and a Carrington Event

[BroncoLera]

It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of when.

We missed a major Carrington event by only 9 days in 2012 when the Sun ejected a large amount of highly charged particle energy but the Earth was not in the "right / wrong" spot.

But just for curiosities sake, I'm wondering what would happen to Solar Panels in such a situation? My best guess is that they would be easily destroyed. Statistically, we're overdue I believe.

What do you think?

[SunEagle]

It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of when.

We missed a major Carrington event by only 9 days in 2012 when the Sun ejected a large amount of highly charged particle energy but the Earth was not in the "right / wrong" spot.

But just for curiosities sake, I'm wondering what would happen to Solar Panels in such a situation? My best guess is that they would be easily destroyed. Statistically, we're overdue I believe.

What do you think?

I don't think the panels will be hurt but just about all of the transformers and possibly the electronics will not like a major change in ground potential once the CME hits us.

What will hurt a solar panel is if we have another major volcano eruption. The amount of dust put up into the atmosphere will greatly reduce solar production. But hey we might not see anything like that for centuries.

[BroncoLera]

I don't think the panels will be hurt but just about all of the transformers and possibly the electronics will not like a major change in ground potential once the CME hits us.

What will hurt a solar panel is if we have another major volcano eruption. The amount of dust put up into the atmosphere will greatly reduce solar production. But hey we might not see anything like that for centuries.

I would have thought that an electrical spike like a powerful CME would easily melt or short the tiny connections that are abundant in solar panels?
Can you educate me and explain how they would not be easily affected?

Thanks

[SunEagle]

I would have thought that an electrical spike like a powerful CME would easily melt or short the tiny connections that are abundant in solar panels?
Can you educate me and explain how they would not be easily affected?

Thanks

Well a CME actually just raises the ground potential voltage which hurts items like transformers. They really wouldn't hurt an item that transfers photons to electricity like a solar panel. But a CME may hurt an inverter.

You can read up on CME's and find out that in the past they did a number on the telegraph system when our "grid" was not fully installed. Now power transformers are the most susceptible to CME damage.

[Mike90250]

While PV panels have lots of little wires and connections, they are small and not conducive to slow speed evens like a CME. If you had 3 or 400' of above ground cables, those may pick up enough charge to fry things. When you have miles of cables ( or RR tracks ) that is definitely going to hurt.

[Murby]

An EMP created by a CME will induce about 1 volt per meter into all conductive surfaces. So if you have a 100 foot extension cord laid out, you can expect about an extra 30 volts on the line.

This doesn't sound like much, and a circuit going from 120 volts to 150 volts, probably isn't going to damage anything, especially a pump or a hand drill or something of that nature.

The problem is, our electrical grid stretches across the landscape like a giant antenna net, and that 1 volt per meter adds up to ridiculously high voltages. As voltage increases, so does current, which then sets everything on fire.

For an off-grid solar system, a CME is mostly harmless, with one exception (see below), but for a grid tied system, I suspect the grid-tied inverters would be smoked, and assuming that grid tied inverter was connected to your house with the rest of your electrical system, it might very well burn down your home as other appliances catch on fire.

There's good news! Unlike the Carrington event, we watch the Sun with special satellites which carry a host of detectors and automated alarms. Large X-class CME's don't just magically burp out of the Sun, they give us warnings called "sun spots".. So not only do we get a warning that large sun spots are rotating in our direction, if they do eject a CME, we'll know its on its way hours and hours before it gets here.

You can prevent your home from burning down, but you won't be able to prevent the inevitable collapse of our nationwide grid. With a Carrington level CME, it won't matter if you're on the day or night side, everyone will get hit pretty much the same as our planet's magnetic field lines bounce around like a balloon filled with jello.

Off Grid Exception: Lets say you have an off-grid solar system set up with 2 (45 volt) panels in series producing about 90 volts.. lets further assume your charge controller has a maximum input limit of 140 volts. Your solar array is located 100 feet away and its cold and sunny outside so your panels are already at the top end of their MPPT voltage range.
In such a case, it is possible that the voltage induced into the DC lines, coupled with the voltage already present from the array, could exceed the 140 volt maximum on your charge controller.

Its an "edge case", and not likely to happen, but its possible.

In any event, I'm not sure how the powers that be would react to a large CME. The 2012 event didn't warn anyone.. maybe the knew it would be a near miss, or maybe they didn't have the systems in place to warn anyone.

As for me, I keep an eye on our Sun via SpaceWeather.com. You can even get an app that warns you ahead of time.

If you hear of an X-class CME heading for us, turn off every breaker in your home, including the main breaker, and unplug everything.

[bcroe]

Given what I see panels take in general, I do not expect to lose all of these
(expandable) items. Inverters, my same back-up pair ought to cover this too.

Bruce Roe

[BroncoLera]

Excellent reading. Thanks to all.

[robbyg]

Not a whole lot is known about about the impact of a blast like the Carrington event on Modern electronics.
We simulate such events on individual components but when the whole system is subjected to such an EMP of that size there is really no telling what might become the weak link that destroys your PV system or household electronics.

To Answer one of your questions about what would happen to the Panels themself, it is said that they will not be affected. Personally I kind of have my doubts about that. There are a lot of long circuit traces in the panel going between what is basically a lot of very small diodes and while one panel may not have an issue who really knows what happens when 24 panels are strung together. As others have posted the wires leading off the roof will get charged. As stated you will have hours of notice, in fact the shortest warning would probably be about 15 hours and it could be days depending on the speed of the ejection. Satellites are not really needed for this as the light from the CME would hit earth in 8 minutes and ground based observatories would know. Of course satellites near the sun can give us better info on the magnitude and impact time of the wave coming.

If your inverter is not EMP hardened, the chances of it getting knocked out are a lot higher. I would certainly disconnect the PV string as well as the batteries, especially if they are Lithium as the BMS may take a hit. Also as suggested kill all the breakers and plug out all devices in the house.
After such an event has passed do not assume anything, even if street lights come back on check the utility voltage at the panel box before switching on the main breaker. I have seen first hand what a damaged utility transformers can do. You can have 150 volts or more on a single leg.

[solarix]

The one thing safe in an EMP is a battery. It is so low impedance, it and everything directly connected to it should be safe. However, charge controllers are PWM so the array isn't really directly connected to the battery and all bets are off. Of course, at night the controller shuts down altogether and would likely fry the input of the controller....