By Jonathan Leake
A surge in house fires caused by solar panels and their batteries is sparking safety concerns over Ed Miliband’s plan for millions more rooftop installations.
UK fire services faced a blaze involving a solar panel once every two days in 2024, according to data gathered by insurance company QBE, marking a 60pc increase in the past two years.
QBE canvassed data from across the UK’s fire services to see how many blazes were caused by solar installations.
It also found fires were rising faster than the rate of installations, suggesting a rise in the number of solar panels could not explain the increase in incidents alone.
Adrian Simmonds, a senior QBE risk manager, said: “Solar is essential to the UK’s clean energy transition but the rapid pace of deployment is raising risk concerns.
“Our analysis shows fires involving solar panels have risen at twice the rate of new installations over the past two years. Safe solar panel installation and maintenance are essential to reducing fires.”
The findings follow a series of disastrous fires linked to solar installations that are thought to have been either faulty or badly maintained.
Earlier this year, a blaze caused by rooftop solar panels forced the evacuation of pregnant women and babies from St Michael’s maternity hospital in Bristol.
Another rooftop solar panel fire, in Church Crookham, Hampshire, damaged three flats in 2022.
Mr Miliband is pushing to accelerate UK solar capacity from 18 gigawatts now to as much as 85 gigawatts by 2035, a nearly fivefold increase.
Some of this expansion will be in the form of ground-mounted panels in the giant solar farms that are replacing farmland across counties like Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Devon and Cornwall.
However, Mr Miliband’s recent Solar Roadmap also calls for rooftop panels to be fitted on millions more homes in addition to the 1.5 million already equipped. It also proposes minimising planning requirements, which can incorporate safety regulations.
QBE’s data showed that there were 107 fires linked to solar panels in 2022 when the UK had about 1.3 million solar panels installed. By 2024, by which point 1.7 million panels were installed, the number of fires had risen to 171.
Biggest risks
The most common source of faults were inverters – electronic devices that convert the direct current produced by solar panels into the alternating current used by the electricity grid.
This process generates a lot of heat, so inverters have to be positioned with good ventilation and kept free of obstructions. Poorly trained installers can place them in lofts or cupboards where they get hot and from where a fire can spread fast.
Lithium-ion batteries are often hooked up to modern solar systems, which can also be a risk. Another fire in Wickford, Essex, in August started in a lithium battery storage system linked to solar panels.
The risk of a fire in any given year remains small but the impact can be devastating. A key danger is when fires are able to extend from the roof down into the house.
The data suggests that siting panels close to or over skylights or rooftop windows is the biggest risk, allowing a blaze to extend downwards into the main part of a home or business.
Mr Simmonds said the solution might lie in better regulations, improved training and service contracts to ensure installations are regularly inspected and maintained.
…
