Photovoltaic industry proposed changes for the 1999 national electrical code for PV applications

An industry supported task group has recently completed writing proposals for changes in bring Article 690 of the 1999 National Electrical Code (NEC{reg_sign}) up to the state-of-the-art in photovoltaic device and system technology. This paper summarizes proposed code changes, discusses background on both new and changed, and presents examples for the proposed changes. Topics such as the proposed new temperature compensation table for calculating maximum system voltage are analyzed. Procedures for calculating conductor sizes with the proposed changes are presented. Impacts on photovoltaic installations, building integrated systems, and AC module installations are also analyzed.