Quality

IIT Kanpur and Lohum will work together to advance lithium-ion battery testing technology and techniques for evaluating battery raw material quality. Lohum will additionally sponsor R&D labs at IIT Kanpur, provide a research fellowship to Ph.D. students, and help IITK commercialize its research outcomes.

In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, the International Renewable Energy Agency shares a series of recommendations gathered from sector experts to help India reach its ambitious solar targets. According to its experts, Quality Infrastructure (QI) will be crucial for the country’s PV market in the years to come. QI is an interdependent ecosystem of the different elements (accreditation, certification, standards, testing, metrology, inspection & monitoring) working together in harmony, and all associated services should be developed in unity and not in a piecemeal fashion. A sound and internationally harmonized QI not only ensures that PV products and services deliver as expected by customers and national energy authorities, but also enables more efficient and competitive markets based on a global economy on scale.

The West Bengal-based solar manufacturing and EPC solutions company said its lab is now accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories to test high-efficiency PV panels.

The expected lifetime of PV inverters is significantly shorter than that of modules. In many projects, inverter replacement is included in financial calculations from the start, despite the high costs. Research is being conducted into the causes of faults to develop more durable inverters and components. But plant design can already improve the lifespan of inverters in use today, reports pv magazine Germany’s Marian Willuhn.

Schüco has expanded its recent warning letter about potential solar panel defects to include more products. The new list includes PV modules the company delivered between 2010 and 2014.

When choosing a solar power plant, individuals and businesses pay the most attention to its power – after all, this will determine how much electricity will be produced. Other equipment, systems and sensors that allow monitoring and analysis of the operation of the power plant are often underestimated. But they shouldn’t be: the solar power plant will be used for several decades, so various failures and poor-quality monitoring can have a significant impact on the efficiency of electricity production.

In a study that began in 2016, US scientists purchased 834 PV modules, representing seven manufacturers and 13 module types, and installed them in various climate conditions to observe their performance over time. The results show that, while plenty of opportunities still exist to extend module lifetimes and reduce performance loss in the field, reductions in the manufacturing cost of PV have not come with an increase in their degradation rate.

Sun simulator is considered to be the heart of a testing or a calibration lab used to test solar PV panels, indoor under controlled and repeatable conditions. There are various parameters to be considered while selecting one.

Indian solar manufacturer Vikram Solar has been listed as a top performer in PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) PV Module Reliability Scorecard 2022 for its half-cut-cell, multi-busbar bifacial PV modules. 

Indian solar manufacturer Adani Solar has been ranked as a top performer in PV Evolution Labs’ (PVEL) 2022 PV Module Reliability Scorecard. The scorecard ranks PV modules based on lab and field test results for performance and reliability.