[RE-wrenches] Galvanic compatibility of commonly used solar materials

Jeff Yago jryago at netscape.com
Sun Feb 1 21:16:05 PST 2009


I recently inspected a large ground mount off-grid system about 3 years old that was installed by others. I would have used a #6 bare copper ground wire due to being exposed almost 100 feet of array length and connected to several ground rods with no conduit, but the installer had used #10 which still barely met code, but sure was flimsy. Anyway, this small ground wire was sagging down in many places along the array length due to about a quarter of the galvanized steel self-tapping screws holding the copper against the aluminum had totally dissolved. 

We always use the cadmium plated copper grounding blocks and stainless steel screws to attach the #6 copper ground wire, and I can see now just how fast the galvanic action can dissolve metal when you don't use stainless steel hardware.

Jeff Yago

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