Quality Roundtable

Are solar projects always a sustainable investment class? How can buyers be certain an asset is a lucrative investment? And how can PV project developers fulfill the requirements set by asset managers? This year’s Asset Management Roundtable brought together stakeholders that deal with PV projects from a financial, legal, and technical perspective. You can now watch the video to discover the answers to these questions.

The adoption of new technology is required to grow and maintain PV’s place in the energy transition. Thankfully, the rate of change within PV technology is accelerating, pointing to a bright future. But what quality risks are emerging from these new technologies? And how can they be managed? Watch the first of four videos from our pv magazine Roundtables Europe event to find out.

In a recent pv magazine webinar, module degradation experts took our audience through the role of temperature and mechanical stress in causing modules to under-perform. We were treated to a look at some impressive results for modules integrated with Coolback – a solution that replaces the backsheet/rear glass and frame in a conventional panel and promises lower operating temperatures and better mechanical strength. Here, Simon Meijer and Alex Masolin, from Coolback – along with Fraunhofer ISE’s Andreas Beinert – answer some of the questions we didn’t have time for during the live broadcast.

This year’s pv magazine Quality Roundtable USA looked at extreme weather, and how resiliency can be built through modern O&M. Representatives from DuPont, Stäubli, Nextracker and RETC took to the virtual stage to discuss weather-related damages, and how to harness quality materials and workmanship to industry’s advantage, particularly when it comes to insurers. Ariel Re and NovaSource, meanwhile, looked at issues like risk management insurance solutions and asset stabilization. Case studies and presentations on the field performance of PV modules, and extreme hail and fire, were also included.

pv magazine’s Quality Roundtable this year brought together experts from a broad range of applications relevant in the solar industry. The overarching theme this year was quality concerns with new technologies. Experts from companies and research institutes held that the failures that the industry has observed with technologies such as 2P single-axis trackers are not inherent in the technology but can be addressed.

The first session of the pv magazine Virtual Roundtables Europe on June 9 showed that the performance of PV arrays can be boosted with effective measures – proving it’s more than just theoretical. The evaluation of a portfolio of 70 plants prompted a performance boost of 8.4%. The video of the event is now online.

The COVID-19 pandemic featured prominently at this week’s inaugural pv magazine Virtual Roundtables Europe, which took place this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Not only did the pandemic lead to the virtualization of pv magazine’s established June Roundtables, but it was a big topic in the final session on Wednesday dealing with markets and specifically the further development of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in Europe.

The performance ratio of an installation is stable, yet the yield and the revenues drop significantly. A U.K. case study shows that faults can compensate for performance ratio value, meaning this value is not always a good key performance indicator on its own. This issue will be discussed during the upcoming asset management session at the pv magazine virtual roundtable Europe 2020.

Analyzing monitoring data does not always accurately identify under-performing assets; and when investigating supposed power loss with IV-curve measurements, a representative sample via thermography should be selected. These are two conclusions drawn from a case study, which will be discussed during the upcoming asset management session at the pv magazine virtual roundtable Europe 2020.

Indian module manufacturers are gearing up for an end-of-year surge in solar project procurement and hoping their investments in incorporating global manufacturing benchmarks will translate into enhanced sales.