Squirrels?

[JJJJ]

Yesterday we had a real life grid down situation for a several mile area.

The reason? Squirrel damage. My BIL looked it up. Apparently it can be common.

We have plenty of these in our area. They would have easy access to the solar shed roof install I am considering.

Any suggestions on ways of protecting the wire under the panels for curious pests looking for something to nibble on?

 

[svetz]

Any suggestions on ways of protecting the wire under the panels for curious pests looking for something to nibble on?

No wonder my neighbor feeds them...

ref

Squirrels damage electrical distribution facilities by tunneling, by chewing through electrical insulation, or by simultaneously coming into contact with two conductors at different electrical potentials. ... Prevention is complicated by the ability of squirrels to bypass plastic animal guards, gnaw through insulation and squeeze through small openings into substations.

squirrel-induced power outage Other commentators have noted that actual cyber attacks by human terrorists are much rarer than disruption caused by squirrels.

... the No. 1 threat experienced to date by the U.S. electrical grid is squirrels...

... a "cyber squirrel" crippled the entire electrical grid south of the River Elster for an hour. This squirrel was described as "a furry suicide bomber"

Storms rule, squirrels drool
in 2018, squirrels accounted for 8% of outages [ref]. So, they're not the biggest threat. (hmmm, Washington post claims 10-20% ref).

See also: Working for peanuts

 

[Rider]

Short of running the wire in conduit into metal junction boxes, pretty tough to stop them if they are determined.

A lot of stories of critters chewing thru automotive wire because they now use soy-based insulation, and it actually attracts critters. Tasty...

 

[radomvam]

A shed would be a good option. Squirrels are helpful for the environment and they're pretty harmless. Be grateful that you don't have mouses to deal with. Now that can be a pretty huge problem. When I've moved to this new apartment complex, I've started to notice that there were some of them in the parking lot. Immediately, I had to call someone from Toxic Respond in order to take care of this problem. Thankfully, this was solved pretty quickly and the issue is no longer present. The company actually sends someone from time to time to check if everything is okay

 

[Smokin]

 

[MarkSolar]

Get up early and sprinkle bird seed in your neighbor's yards.