The independent testing service provider TÜV Rheinland has successfully inspected and certified four solar power plants belonging to Sybac Solar with a total output of 54MWp in accordance with an extensive criteria catalog.
The intention behind the voluntary testing of the power plants is to achieve the greatest possible reliability for plant operations, thereby securing their profitability and yield prospects over the long term.
Robert Watkins, managing director of Sybac Service, said: "With a view to investments made, it is of fundamental importance to us to identify additional potential for optimizing yield. In co-operation with a team of independent experts from TÜV Rheinland, we have tested every aspect of our four large-scale power plants in extensive detail. We are proud to say that all four farms have been issued with certification from TÜV Rheinland, thereby confirming that they meet the most stringent quality requirements."
With more than 500 megawatts of installed capacity, the German company is one of the most experienced project planners and operators of solar power plants. Other solar parks belonging to the German and international company are also currently undergoing the TÜV Rheinland certification process.
Extensive catalog successfully tested
A total of more than 200 detailed quality criteria were checked in order to obtain the TÜV Rheinland certification.
The test categories are safety, conformity with standards, functionality and output. The criteria cover planning, including supplier and component selection, site and yield certification, installation, commissioning with technical inspection of the systems and extensive documentation as well as technical maintenance and monitoring of operations.
Technical specifications are also drawn up to ensure the quality of the individual system components, including for modules, the substructure, inverters, connection boxes and cabling. The criteria included in the catalog of tests go way beyond the basic requirements of component certification and also include requirements specific to the particular systems or sites.
Defects in large-scale power plants ruled out
The independent certification of large-scale photovoltaic power plants by TÜV Rheinland is a response to the high number of defects and frequency of faults in solar power plants.
In 2013, TÜV Rheinland analyzed the incidence of faults at 125 large-scale solar power plants that had undergone their first inspection by specialists in recent years. They discovered that approximately 30% of all large-scale power plants inspected by TÜV Rheinland were found to have serious defects.
These were either serious safety-relevant problems that required immediate action or significant accumulations of problems that strongly impaired the plants' functionality.
Half of all defects identified were installation errors, including inadequate or even dangerous cable routing, defective foundations or installation of support frames, defects with connections and grounding, and so on.
