James It's hard to beat buried copper. At an array of 4-14 foot high trackers we installed in 2005 we buried over 700 feet of bare copper in the same trenches, a foot above the conduit runs. The ground was limestone so driven rods were out of the question. There was also a Ufer ground to each 8 foot pier. The site received a direct lightning strike to a 24 ft weather station mast only 100 feet from the nearest tracker. The arc jumped to a steel well casing another 100 feet the opposite direction from the trackers. I'm convinced the lightning never "saw" the trackers due to their low impedance to earth. The steel casing didn't hurt either but the trackers were a much bigger target.
Jim Duncan North Texas Renewable Energy NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer No.031310-57 TECL 27398 [email protected] 817.917.0527 www.ntrei.com Dear Wrenches, Does anybody have any best practices for designing large PV arrays on metal building in lightning prone areas? Lightning arrestors on the DC side and Surge suppressors on the AC load side? Any input or resources would be greatly appreciated. Sunny Regards, James Rudolph NABCEP Certified Installer Master Electrician SF Energy _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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