(Photovoltaic surge protective device (SPD) and grounding photovoltaic system

These last years Photovoltaic systems and all renewable technologies are worldwide growing topics. Some countries have developed this technology since more than 15 years but it is a real explosion phenomenon since only 2 years. This pushes all systems or devices manufacturers to start developing solutions quickly. Standardization organizations are also involved by this new technical trend and start to develop specific standards for specific Photovoltaic solutions. But as always in such a case, market is asking technological solution faster than standardization organization can write standards. This is of course the case for Surge Protective Devices (SPD) intended to be used on DC side of photovoltaic systems. Concerning the SPD for photovoltaic application, two main subjects can be highlighted for their selection: ; SPD's technology to deal with specific d.c. electrical characteristics for Photovoltaic. : Architecture configuration of the SPD depending on photovoltaic grounding system, converter technology and SPD end of life behavior. The first subject will not be treated in this paper. The aim of this paper is not to describe any standard for SPDs, but is to describe one specific aspect (second bullet) linked to both MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) based SPDs and photovoltaic installation on d.c. side. Only the grid connected PV system are considered in this paper, but some points can be extrapolated to off-grid systems.