Fire crews from Ryde and Sandown responded to a smoking solar panel on the roof of a bungalow in Bembridge this morning (Tuesday).
It was just before 10:40 that Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service mobilised 2 appliances and an Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) to Meadow End, off Meadow Drive.
It had been reported to fire control that smoke was issuing from a photovoltaic solar panel attached to a residential property.
Firefighters used ladders to gain access to a flat roof and then utilised a special extinguisher called PVSTOP – which is carried on the ALP – to bring the situation under control.
PVSTOP is a specialised fire safety product to neutralise solar panels. It works by blocking sunlight and therefore ‘switching off’ the solar panels, making them electrically safe.
Fire crews have since stood down from the incident.
Glad it was stopped in its tracks. If that numpty net zero brained Miliband gets his way and covers every hospital, car park, house and open field with the retched things, the fire brigade are going to be very busy indeed.
This has got to be one of the stupidest comments on this site (and there are some really stupid ones).
Solar panels are a renewable source of energy and much needed to help prevent and reverse the damage to our planet.
Like all electrical items, there will always be a fire risk. Nothing is fool proof. But for you to act as if solar panels are a bad thing?!? My god, this island really needs to get some education sorted.
There are more daily fires caused by air fryers than there are in an entire year related to solar panelling.
Agreed…. there’s more to this than meets the eye. There must be millions of solar panels installed world wide. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a panel ‘smoking’. Bad/faulty install ? Short circuit in the cable?
Lizzy, I wonder just how much education you have actually had with regard to the manufacture of solar panels. For your information they are not recyclable, (at the moment) once they no longer work or need to be renewed they have to go to land fill. (Nice.)
I strongly advise you to broaden your mind with regard to the Eco-Vandalism that is marching all over this county, diminishing its green fields and farmland. (once gone you will never get it back) The packaging they arrive in is plastic and not recyclable either. Just for your information too a lot of the panels are made in Canada, hmm wonder how they get here, cannot imagine that will be a green mode of transport either.
You stick with what you are being fed from the dying MSM and from the politicians that only what to fill their own pockets.
I will stick with the awakened independent media and individuals who are out there, and who know the real truth behind net zero.
Have a lovely evening.
What are you talking about? Solar panels are roughly 75% glass, which is fully recyclable. Their frames are aluminium, which can be recycled at your local recycling centre, silicon cells can be recovered and purified for reuse (albeit complex but can be done) and silver and copper are very easy to recycle. Yes there are plastics and polymers but this makes up less than 5% of the entire panel.
To also counteract your argument, the average life span of a solar panel is 30-40 years, making them far more sustainable than most electrical components in a standard household. The average smartphone is expected to last only 3-5 years….
You are right, we produce very few solar panels in the UK but you are wrong about Canada, it is actually China who is our biggest manufacturer. But they aren’t flown in on a private jet, they are most commonly shipped in, which yes, is the greenest mode of transport across oceans. Yes we would all prefer there to be few carbon emissions from the products we buy but let’s face it, we don’t have the ability to produce everything in the UK.
Shipping a single solar panel from China to the UK contributes a relatively small amount to its overall carbon footprint. Estimates suggest that transportation emissions account for about 3% of a solar panel’s total lifecycle emissions . For a standard 20 kg panel, this equates to approximately 1.5 kg of CO₂ emissions from shipping.
Once installed and operational, a solar panel in the UK typically offsets its entire carbon footprint—including manufacturing, transport, and installation—within 1.18 years if produced in China . This rapid offset is due to the clean energy the panel generates, which displaces electricity that would otherwise come from fossil fuels.
Considering that modern solar panels have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years , they provide decades of net-zero carbon electricity after offsetting their initial emissions. This makes solar panels an effective means of reducing long-term carbon emissions, even when accounting for the emissions associated with their transportation from manufacturing hubs like China.
Next time you are so confidently commenting on these things, do some research first instead of just typing some drivel you heard on a podcast without fact checking.
Yes I agree
I built my own solar system which is very cheap to do,
My last bill was £21.90p
And more than 3 quarter is service change but I’m working on going fully off grid
Yet the Government are allowing Fire Stations to
close down, the same thing happened when Bojo.
was London Mayor, he closed down many Fire Stations
and then the Grenfell Tower disaster happened.
Politicians are not the brightest bunch.
Nice cheap Chinese Tofu Dreg solar panels, what can possible go wrong.
And all new builds come with solar panels,
good luck with that.
DONT know how it caught fire or smoked, “if it did”.
Looking at the panels in the picture they appear to be direct water heating panels, having a water pipe connection at the top and bottom.
Net zero should be applied to the world population and then we might stop trashing the planet.
Discuss that!
Dear Lizzy thank you for your so well informed information. I will take the wealth of knowledge that you have given to me and the other readers on board. You are clearly a very tightly coiled individual, and as I said in my first reply to you, you stick to your MSM beliefs, trust the politicians and see where it leads you, together with all the other sheep of this country. I will continue quite happily in my beliefs and watch it all unravel from afar. (Quite entertaining really) Just for the record I do not subscribe to any pod casts, never have and never will. Have a nice day.
It’s amazing how, when presented with scientific fact that is not back by any political belief, you still won’t accept that you are not correct. I suggest that you actually do some research on the subject to understand what is an incredibly important topic for our planet.
I don’t trust anyone in our current or previous government on these matters, I do my own research and take well-informed conclusions from there.
Fortunately for us, we will likely (and hopefully) be dead before the true climate impact will be apparent and destroy this part of the world. But we can make substantial changes for future generations.
If you want to believe that renewable energy sources are ‘bad’ then I implore you to research the propaganda by fossil fuel companies who are doing everything within their power to maintain their record profits and massive CEO bonuses. Not forgetting Russia making a bit impact on the West so they can continue to keep us reliant on their gases.