PV manufacturers will use the new standard to increase the level of confidence investors, utilities, and consumers have in solar panel safety and reliability, which in turn should lower the cost of financing for solar projects.
The standard supplements the existing ISO-9001 and was jointly developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International PV Quality Assurance Task Force (PVQAT).
The task force was formed in 2011 to accelerate the IEC's development of standards by writing initial drafts and coordinating research to provide the technical basis for new standards. The new standard appears in "Terrestrial Photovoltaic (PV) Modules - Guidelines for increased confidence in PV module design qualification and type approval."
The PV industry has grown by a factor of about 500 over the past two decades. With customers worldwide now investing approximately $100 billion in PV annually, the international solar community is driven to maintain the quality of that investment.
To this end, NREL, along with other international groups, has spearheaded the PVQAT to establish guidelines that cover:
Primary contributions to this work came from Govind Ramu (SunPower), Yoshihito Eguchi (Mitsui Chemical), George Kelly (Sunset Technology), Masaaki Yamamichi (AIST), Wei Zhou (Trina Solar), Sumanth Lokanath (First Solar), and Sarah Kurtz (NREL).
These and others co-authored a technical report detailing the requirements, "Updated Proposal for a Guide for Quality Management Systems for PV Manufacturing: Supplemental Requirements to ISO 9001-2008."
The PVQAT effort is closely coordinated with the IEC, which uses a formal process to refine and define the final documents. The new standards detail how manufacturers must:
Consider potential failure modes and take steps to address those in the design, production, application, and delivery process.
Obtain IEC certification and implement an ongoing reliability test program that monitors the performance of PV modules.
Improve product traceability through the entire supply chain in the case of recalls or warranty claims.
Pass-fail requirements, a checklist, and guidance on how factory audits are completed have been drafted and are in the process of being adopted to help ensure consistent implementation of the new standards, known as IEC 62941.
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