CABLING & CABLE MANAGEMENT SUPPLEMENT FEATURE
The growing, worldwide emphasis on environmentally-friendly renewable energy sources means large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are under increasing pressure to generate green energy on an unprecedented scale. Consequently, any disruption can have
widespread logistical, financial and performance-related consequences for plant owners and operators. With this in mind, Ian Gibson, technical director at Flexicon, explains the
importance of specifying appropriate cable protection and the representative test methods for ensuring excellent protection performance
Protecting solar installation cabling from hostile environments
S
olar PV installations are typically subjected to a variety of hazards due to their external
locations, with interconnected cabling typically subjected to prolonged exposure to UV radiation. Throughout the life of the installation, UV radiation will degrade any plastic materials unless consideration has been given to the selected products and materials used during the design and specification. Failure could result in materials cracking, an increase in brittleness, less flexibility and lower impact strength. The levels of UV radiation exposure of the materials, which varies throughout the world, will determine the extent and severity of the potentially damaging effects. Furthermore, UV damage can change the material properties, making them more vulnerable to other environmental factors such as extreme temperatures, impact, crushing, corrosion, abrasions, dust and water ingress, and attack from grazing animals and vermin.
WHOLE LIFE COSTS Yet despite cabling being vital to continuous power and avoiding disruption, cable protection has traditionally been seen as an afterthought. Specifiers often choose the cheapest option available, resulting in a false economy when considering whole life costs. This is a mistake, as prolonged exposure to UV
radiation can result in incorrectly-specified protection systems becoming degraded or damaged, exposing necessary cabling and leading to potential failure. The ensuing, unscheduled downtime caused by equipment breakdown can lead to far-reaching operational issues as solar installations are typically
Xenon arc test UL 1660, carried out by the independent Underwriters Laboratories.
installed in remote or isolated locations and spread across large areas. Consequently, from a practical perspective,
physical fault finding and fixing damaged solar cabling can be, even with the advent of sophisticated remote monitoring technology, quite difficult. Downtime results in lost revenue while remedial work is carried out and contractors are under pressure to get systems back online safely. If owners or operators are working from a payback deal, such disruption can often lead to penalty clauses being invoked.
CORRECT SPECIFICATION As a result, when specifying flexible conduit for solar cabling, UV performance should be prioritised. It is recommended that cabling used in solar applications should be protected in a flexible conduit system to enhance the level of performance over the installation’s lifetime. Taking this into account, many flexible conduit manufacturers quote products to be ‘UV resistant’. However, because there is no one recognised standard that UV resistance is tested to, actual product performance claims can differ drastically from manufacturer to manufacturer. So how do you know how effective or how much UV resistance a product will offer? In fact, some cable protection systems that claim to offer UV resistance may have been designed to offer protection against only occasional UV. Such variation can lead to specifiers and
purchasers selecting incorrect and unsuitable cable protection systems. Flexicon have tested a range of products to provide assurances and confirm that its conduit solutions offer maximum, protection from UV radiation. These products have been subjected to the 1,000 hour
EXTENDED UV TESTING Selected Flexicon products have been exposed to extended testing, enduring over 21,000 hours of Xenon arc testing without failure. To put this into context, this would be equivalent to being subjected to over 21 years in Florida sunshine where UV radiation levels measure between 160 and 180 Kilolangleys. Flexicon products have also provided cable protection against UV radiation for applications in the telecommunications industry for over 10 years in Australia without failure. Developed for the world’s most demanding
environments, Flexicon’s extensive testing and performance simulations provide reassurance of UV performance suitable for the UK, where radiation levels are not as extreme as other parts of the world. Indeed, the company is so confident in its range of solar flexible conduit systems’ ability to survive external applications, it now offers varying warranty periods up to 20 years for specific product ranges from the product’s purchase date.
Designed to protect cables used for Solar PV
installations, this solar product range warranty offers reassurance that Flexicon’s Flexible Conduit will not suffer from significant mechanical deterioration from Ultra Violet exposure for either 20 years or 10 years depending on the product. For example, the FPIH range, which is suited for tracking solar arrays, is covered for 20 years and the FPAS range of conduits is covered for 10 years.
www.flexicon.uk.com/en
CABLING & CABLE MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2018 S13
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