Grass fire near Alamo 2 solar farm during grass cutting

What happened

A grass fire was reported near the Alamo 2 solar farm, named in the report as the OCI Solar Powr Alamo 2 Solar Farm, close to the corner of Binz Engleman and Woodlake Parkway in San Antonio. The San Antonio Fire Department said it started around noon on Tuesday while two employees of the plant were cutting grass. Officials reported that 12 acres burned. OCI Enterprises, which owns the farm, reported that 20 acres burned.

Bexar County emergency services districts 9, 11 and 12 attended. The report said nobody was injured and no property was damaged. OCI Energy shut down output from the solar farm as a precaution and notified CPS Energy, and said it would re-energise the site once fire officials declared it safe.

Contributing factors

The report attributes the fire to grass cutting by employees of the plant. It does not describe the equipment used or how the fire started.

Lessons learned

1. Vegetation management at solar sites needs fire controls, including work planning where grass is dry.
2. Operators should have a clear process to isolate generation and notify the network company when a fire is reported on or near the site.
3. Acreage and damage figures from the fire service and the site owner should both be recorded where they differ, rather than treated as a single settled total.

Source

foxsanantonio.com