Do Solar Panels Attract Lightning?

Reviewed by John Ihle, MN Master Electrician (AM005101) · NABCEP-credentialed · iSolar, Saint Paul Park, MN · Last reviewed October 2026

The short answer: no, panels do not attract lightning

This is one of the most common questions we hear at kitchen tables, usually right after someone mentions the aluminum frames. The worry makes sense, but the physics does not support it.

The National Weather Service is blunt about it: metal does not attract lightning. Height, a pointed shape and isolation are the dominant factors that decide where a bolt strikes. A lightning channel forms high in the cloud and works its way down without “seeing” anything on the ground until it is very close. Only in the last stretch does a tall object reach up and connect, and its zone of influence is roughly equal to its height.

A rooftop solar array sits only a few inches above the shingles. It does not make your house taller, pointier or more isolated. The chimney, a TV antenna or the big oak in the backyard all stick up more than your panels do. Ground-mounted arrays are usually lower than the nearby trees and buildings, too.

So installing solar does not meaningfully change the odds of your house being struck. What it does change is how much electronics you have connected to the roof, and that is where good grounding and surge protection come in.

Direct strikes vs. nearby strikes: what actually damages solar

There are two ways lightning hurts a PV system, and they are not equally likely.

• Direct strikes are rare. When they happen, the energy can melt panel components, wiring and inverters. No residential equipment survives a direct hit unscathed.
• Nearby strikes are far more common. A bolt hitting a tree, pole or neighbor's house within a few hundred feet can induce surges of thousands of volts in long runs of wire. UL's guidance on lightning protection for solar notes that most damage comes from these indirect strikes.

Induced surges are why the usual casualty after a summer thunderstorm in the Twin Cities is not a panel. It is an inverter, a few microinverters, a monitoring gateway, or a battery's communication board. The same surge can also take out the garage door opener and the TV, which is a hint that this is a whole-house issue, not a solar issue.

Grounding and bonding: what the electrical code requires

Every permitted solar installation in Minnesota is built to the National Electrical Code and inspected. The code requirements that matter here live in Article 690 (solar PV systems) and Article 250 (grounding and bonding). In the 2023 NEC, for example:

• 690.43 requires the exposed metal parts of the system, including module frames and racking, to be bonded together and connected to an equipment grounding conductor.
• 690.47 covers how the PV system connects to the building's grounding electrode system.
• Article 250 sets the general rules for grounding electrodes, bonding jumpers and conductor sizing.

Minnesota adopted the 2026 NEC for permits filed on or after August 17, 2026, so section numbers can shift slightly depending on when your system was permitted. The principle does not change.

It helps to understand what grounding and bonding do and do not do. They keep every piece of metal at the same electrical potential and give fault current a safe path so breakers trip and inverters shut down. That protects people from shock. Equipment grounding is not a lightning protection system. It is not designed to carry a direct strike to earth. It does, however, give surge protective devices a solid reference so they can work.

Surge protection: the layer that saves your inverter

Surge protective devices (SPDs) clamp voltage spikes and divert them to ground before they reach sensitive electronics. A well-protected solar home typically has several layers:

The 2023 NEC also requires a whole-home SPD to have a nominal discharge rating of at least 10kA. If your home has an older panel without an SPD, adding one is one of the cheapest upgrades you can make, with or without solar. Our electrical services team installs them, often in the same visit as a panel or solar interconnection.

Lightning rods and solar arrays

Most Twin Cities homes do not have a lightning protection system, and solar does not create a new reason to add one. Homes and farm buildings that already have rods, especially in open rural settings, need some care.

NFPA 780, the lightning protection standard, has a chapter specifically for solar arrays. The basic idea is to keep the panels inside the zone of protection of air terminals, without mounting the terminals on the solar racking itself, since a strike to a rack-mounted terminal can send current through the modules. Terminals should also be placed so they do not shade the array.

If your farm or lake place already has a lightning protection system, tell your installer before design. The array may need to be bonded to the existing system or the air terminals relocated, and that work should be coordinated with a qualified lightning protection installer.

Is lightning damage covered by insurance?

Lightning is a common, expensive claim. Insurance Information Institute data shows U.S. insurers paid about $1.04 billion on 55,537 lightning-related homeowners claims in 2024, an average of $18,641 per claim.

Standard homeowners policies typically cover lightning and the power surges it causes, and rooftop solar is usually treated as part of the dwelling. But policies vary, deductibles apply, and some insurers want to be told when you add solar. Call your agent once your system is installed and confirm it is listed. Our guide to homeowners insurance and solar panels in Minnesota covers the questions to ask.

Insurance pays for sudden damage. Your equipment warranty covers defects. Read both, since lightning is generally an outside cause rather than a product defect.

What to check after a lightning strike

If lightning hits your home or something close to it, work through this list:

1. Stay safe first. If you smell burning, see smoke or scorch marks, or hear crackling, leave the house and call 911.
2. Do not touch the array, inverter or wiring. Panels stay energized whenever the sun is up.
3. Check your monitoring app. Look for panels, microinverters or a whole inverter reporting zero or offline. Our offline monitoring guide helps you tell a dead gateway from a dead system.
4. Look from the ground for scorch marks, cracked glass, or damage to the chimney, antenna or nearby trees.
5. Check the service panel for tripped breakers and the status light on your whole-home SPD, if you have one. Do not reset breakers repeatedly.
6. Take photos and notes with times before anything is repaired.
7. Call your installer and your insurer. A licensed electrician should test the system, including the insulation of the DC wiring, before it goes back into full service.

Get your system checked

If your system went quiet after a storm, or you want to know whether your home has surge protection, we can help. Our master electrician-led crews test and repair systems we installed and systems other companies installed. Start with solar panel repair or call (651) 565-1140.

Sources

• National Weather Service — Lightning myths
• UL — Lightning protection for solar panels
• Insurance Information Institute / State Farm — Lightning-related homeowners claims, 2024 (Business Wire)
• Leviton — NEC code requirements for surge protection (230.67)
• Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry — Electrical codes and standards