admin 
Summer is a season characterized by frequent thunderstorms, making lightning protection essential for outdoor solar street lights. Due to their height, these lights are easily susceptible to lightning strikes. There are four main types of lightning strikes that can affect solar street lights: switching overvoltage, induced lightning, conducted lightning, and direct strikes. So, how can solar street lights be protected from lightning strikes? The following will introduce measures for lightning protection.
1. Lightning Rod Installation
To prevent lightning from directly striking the pole of the solar street light, the pole should be designed as a lightning rod. This way, during a lightning strike, the lightning can be directed to the rod, absorbing the direct lightning discharge.
2. Electrical Grounding
1. Protective Grounding
To ensure the safety of both personnel and equipment in case of electrical leakage, all exposed conductive parts of electrical equipment should be grounded through a grounding wire. The grounding resistance must comply with the installation requirements of the leakage protector.
2. Working Grounding
The neutral point of the low-voltage power grid should be directly grounded, with the system grounding resistance being less than 10Ω.
3. Lightning Protection Grounding
To prevent electrical equipment from being struck by lightning, grounding devices such as lightning rods, lightning wires, and lightning arresters should be installed, with grounding resistance also being less than 10Ω.
3. Metal Zero Connection
Connect the metal casing and metal frame of electrical equipment to the neutral ground wire. The grounding wire should use insulated wire and be continuous without any joints. The grounding wire of the lightning arrester should connect to the ground wire at a short distance. For protective devices, the cross-sectional area of the phase line S should be ≤ 16mm², and for grounding and protective wires, the minimum cross-section of S for 16 ≤ 35 must be 16, while for S > 35, it should be S/2. The welded length of the grounding wire should have a flat steel width of ≥ 2 times the width of the flat steel.
4. Circuit Protection
Install dedicated solar lightning protectors designed according to the power voltage of the solar street light. During thunderstorm weather, a surge voltage or current can be generated across the circuit due to electrostatic or electromagnetic induction, affecting the LED solar street light equipment. The dedicated solar lightning protector can safeguard against surge voltage in the power line and prevent widespread damage to solar street lights from lightning strikes in the same area.
The above methods for protecting solar street lights from lightning strikes have been shared. In summary, it is crucial to ensure lightning protection measures are in place before frequent thunderstorms, using the methods outlined above to effectively avoid unnecessary damage from lightning strikes to solar street lights.
