I don't believe the panels would be hurt(just sand) Don't believe the batteries would be affected either. The inverter on the other hand, probably gonna have a bad day, but maybe not?
Interesting question. I believe the Panels would be fine. But, I would be interested in finding a Good Info Source for information either way.Just curious but are solar panels subject to damage from an EMP burst?
I presume the inverter would blow out.
What about the batteries?
A Faraday will not work if you have whatever is inside of it hooked up to the outside of the Faraday Cage. It has to be an Isolator to perform well.What if the inverter is located in a closet in the basement of the house?
Or would the inverter have to be inside a Faraday cage?
And would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around a working inverter that has wires coming into the cage from the solar array to the inverter and also wires to the batteries?
A Faraday will not work if you have whatever is inside of it hooked up to the outside of the Faraday Cage. It has to be an Isolator to perform well.
It is less about the Location and more about the length of the Wiring/Circuits catching the pulse.
I do not think a panel will survive. They are made from a semiconductor material.
An EMP that will damage solar panels will leave you not caring about them.
They've suffered direct lightning strikes with no damage. Batteries will not be affected. An inverter probably will not be affected as it is designed to handle very high currents, but it's the most vulnerable part of the system, and I don't consider it that vulnerable if installed properly. I lost an inverter due to a nearby (20' away) lightning strike and I traced the failure mode to bad grounding.
. . . I am FAR more worried about losing my system to a tornado.
Folks can debate the issue all they want, I'm not going to be drawn into a Longbow style discussion of the "what ifs" as I consider that level of an EMP attack to be a very low probability event and I'm not going to spend much time worrying about it. I am FAR more worried about losing my system to a tornado.
What if the inverter is located in a closet in the basement of the house?
Or would the inverter have to be inside a Faraday cage?
And would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around a working inverter that has wires coming into the cage from the solar array to the inverter and also wires to the batteries?
Don't think a Faraday cage will help with an EMP.