Solid Copper in Conduit

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yesterlectric

Senior Member
Location
PA
Occupation
Electrician
Hello All,

Sometimes on our utility scale solar projects, #6 solid copper is specified by the engineer for grounding/bonding combiner boxes to racking system and it gets ran in conduit. Usually this is for a short run, such as to go from a weatherhead close to the rack to the combiner box a very short distance away.

I seem to remember that there was an exception or allowance in the code to allow for #6 and smaller to be run in conduit when run with PV source circuit wiring but I can not find it. Is there such exception and where is it? So far, we have never had trouble with this, but usually wires #8 and larger are supposed to be stranded when run in conduit.
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
I have to say I think the new allowance is dumb, and I don't intend to take advantage of it. A lot of wire pulls in chases between arrays are difficult to begin with, and having a solid #6 ground in there would greatly increase the chances of a ground fault. Not worth the cost of a couple c-taps if you have to return later to find a ground fault inside a conduit where moisture has collected.

AHJ's around me mostly allow #10 under arrays in any case.
 
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