Solar and battery-equipped home destroyed by explosion in Germany

A serious explosion occurred in Schönberg, in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein on Wednesday afternoon. A residential building was badly damaged with an entire outer wall torn away.

The Schönberg volunteer fire department reported a loud bang followed by a pressure wave. Thick smoke then rose. The fire was quickly brought under control, although embers kept flaring up, according to a fire department spokesman questioned by pv magazine.

The structural stability of the building was being checked at the time of writing, yesterday, and a surrounding area had been cordoned off.

“Demolition is probably the only option,” said the fire department spokesman. No one was injured by the blast as the residents were on vacation, the fire department said.

The building was constructed by Viebrockhaus, which installs solar panels and a residential energy storage system as standard. Viebrockhaus did not respond to an inquiry from pv magazine and the fire department spokesman could not provide details about the manufacturer of the residential battery.

The building has been closed to the public and the police have taken over the investigation into the cause of the fire and explosion. The fire department spokesman confirmed to pv magazine that the building did not have a gas heater.

German energy storage company Senec stated the building was not equipped with one of its storage systems. The Leipzig-based company said, “We monitor all of our installed storage systems using the relevant data streams and can therefore say with certainty that the affected storage device is not a Senec device.”

From pv magazine Deutschland.