The importance of grounding and equalization

When safely installing the solar power plant, a distinction must be made between grounding and equalizing the plant. The plant must be connected to earth for the dissipation of currents. In addition, potential equalization of the various electrically conductive parts is important in order to compensate for voltage differences between conductive parts.

Solar panels act as a capacitor to ground. With a pure DC voltage relative to ground, no current would flow from PLUS (or MIN) to ground. Because the voltage at a transformer relative to ground contains an AC voltage component, current flows from the panels to ground. For this reason, among others, the metal parts to which the PV panels are attached, including the metal cable support systems, must be grounded. Properly installed grounding and potential equalization is safe and contributes to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

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