Three-Prong Path to Comprehensive Technical Standards for PV Reliability

As the PV industry has grown, the long-term reliability of PV systems has become increasingly important. There are many facets to this problem and many organizations are taking on the challenge. This paper describes three closely coordinated efforts that, together, are intended to provide a comprehensive set of standards for the technical aspects of verifying PV system quality and bankability. These three efforts are developing standards for 1) qualifying the design for the intended application (climate zone and mounting configuration), 2) quality management systems for PV module manufacturing, and 3) system-level inspections to ensure appropriate design, installation, commissioning, and operation of PV systems. The International PV Module Quality Assurance Task Force was created in 2011 to address the first two of these and now has ten task groups working to develop specific tests and guidelines. More recently, the IEC Conformity Assessment Board formed a new entity to define how a certification can be completed for renewable energy systems, including PV systems. This new group, IEC RE, will create a process based on a comprehensive set of standards including the module-specific standards developed by the Task Force and a range of system-level standards that have already been published by IEC or other standards organizations. Aspects of the system that are not included in an existing standard will be identified and addressed. This comprehensive set of technical standards will provide a technical foundation for a range of broader assessments (including financial assessments) being developed to establish investor confidence. This paper will describe these three coordinated efforts and how they align with other related efforts.

KURTZ Sarah;  WOHLGEMUTH John;  SAMPLE Tony;  YAMAMICHI Masaaki;  KONDO Michio;  KELLY George; 

2014-11-25

IEEE

JRC88973

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6925063,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC88973,   

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925063,