Environment & Energy

I'm just speculating.

The plastics commonly used for insulating these buildings are fire resistant but will break down into flammable gasses and cause a self sustaining fire once they are hot enough.

The Grenfell Tower tragedy which killed seventy people in England was caused by plastic foam insulation that was not approved for use on high rise building. I'm guessing the foam insulation used in this warehouse was approved for this application, but maybe hadn't been tested with a dense overlay of solar panels.

Once the direct current wiring of these solar panels begins to char or melt electric arcing could be a constant source of re-ignition.

If any of this is the case we could see some changes in building codes and insurance rates which might lead to solar installations of this type being removed.