What do most engineers get wrong about lightning protection?

In this episode, Veli sits down with Franco D'Alessandro from LPI to explore lightning protection for commercial solar, battery storage and critical infrastructure.

From astrophysics to lightning engineering, Franco explains how lightning forms, why blunt air terminals outperform sharp rods, and why surge protection, earthing and bonding are just as important as capturing the strike.

Franco has multiple patents to his name with numerous research papers published and we were so lucky to have him on!

⚡ What we cover:

✅ How lightning forms
✅ Direct vs indirect strikes
✅ Solar farm protection
✅ Earthing and bonding
✅ Surge protection
✅ Floating solar
✅ Lightning myths
✅ Risk assessments

THE CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro: Lightning & Solar
01:12 Growing Up In Tasmania
04:15 Astrophysics Journey
08:45 Entering Lightning Protection

15:10 Australia & Lightning Myths
19:40 How Lightning Forms
25:20 Why Lightning Protection Matters
33:00 Four Parts Of Protection

42:10 Air Terminals Explained
50:45 Sharp vs Blunt Rods
1:00:35 Solar Farms & Risk

1:07:15 Floating Solar
1:15:00 Large Solar Farms
1:22:00 Wrap Up

If you work in commercial solar, engineering or renewable energy, this episode is packed with practical insights that come from a massive mind that is Franco D'Alessandro!

#LightningProtection #SolarFarms #CommercialSolar #RenewableEnergy #ElectricalEngineering #SurgeProtection #Earthing #Bonding #BatteryStorage #BESS #FloatingSolar #GridInfrastructure #PowerSystems #LPI #SolarAustralia #RenewableEnergyAustralia #EngineeringPodcast #GreenwoodAcademy