Fire safety solutions for renewable energy facilities

Agendas for climate protection in recent decades have encouraged many companies to phase out their use of polluting fossil fuels and replace it with renewable energy sources. Property managers of large commercial or industrial premises are increasingly turning to solar energy installations as a key source of electricity. But high demand and the fast-paced, wide-scale implementation of photovoltaic equipment across rooftops presents its own risks and hazards when it comes to fire safety. Alerts which falsely indicate a roof is burning interrupt power generation and supply and spark evacuations which result in significant but avoidable business losses. A fire safety solution must therefore be swift to catch and contain any signs of real fires while proving it is robust against false alarms.

AVIOTEC video-based flame and smoke detection from Bosch offers a convenient all-in-one solution to address the challenges of fire safety on power generation plants and installations. Stringent testing in the Bosch Fire Lab have proven that, with its preconfigured AI algorithms, AVIOTEC can reliably detect smoke and flames at their source within the first few seconds. This means a fire can be contained rapidly and rates of nuisance alarms – and unnecessary evacuations – are much lower. The video-based technology can be positioned to monitor a wide area, so fewer devices are needed compared to classic spot beam systems. AVIOTEC technology comprises integrated IP67 housing, making it resistant to weather conditions. This keeps the camera lens clear to ensure sharp, reliable video footage, even in conditions where visibility is usually challenged. Footage clarity is also ensured by the tamper detection function within the configuration. This means a scene quality check is possible for individual settings where scenes are either too bright or too dark. A reference image check is an additional option. The housing also protects the technology against vandalism and tampering. The robust smoke detection algorithm is reliable even in windy conditions.

AVIOTEC monitors an area for any fire-related events. Video footage is continually processed as visual data by deep learning algorithms. The intelligent technology is pre-trained to differentiate between real smoke or flames – events which require alerts to be triggered – and any phenomena or event which poses no fire risk. This makes it superior compared to classic fire detection systems as it is more robust against false alarms. Any genuine fire alerts which are triggered can instantly be transferred to the VMS and fire alarm panels so safety personnel can initiate evacuations and begin containment measures.