PVEL splits from DNV GL

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PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) is on its own again. After five years as part of European quality assurance and risk management company DNV GL, at the beginning of the year the Silicon Valley solar and battery testing laboratory emerged as a newly independent company via a management buy-out.

Along with that, Jenya Meydbray is coming back as CEO to lead the company he co-founded, after a stint at developer Cypress Creek Renewables. In addition to Meydbray, the company will be led by executives who have been with the company since before the merger, including Tara Doyle as chief commercial officer (CCO), Chris Faith as chief operating officer, and Ryan Desharnais as chief technology officer.

PVEL says that it will continue to collaborate with DNV GL “where appropriate”, but notes that its newly independent status will allow it to be more nimble. “The technology is moving faster than ever before,” Meydbray told pv magazine. “There are certain advantages to being large, and there are advantages to being small and agile.”

Apparently this includes being able to work with other partners, and to to be able to enter independent markets and work with IE companies as an independent lab.

But according to PVEL executives, this is not as big of a change as is often the case in a split. “Even within DNV GL we operated with as an independent test lab,” states CCO Doyle. She notes that within DNV GL there was a “firewall” between the independent engineers and the testing lab, to protect the manufacturing clients, including those who were trying out new products and approaches, as well as noting that the lab always worked with independent engineers.

Also, PVEL will continue to collaborate with DNV GL on the publication of its annual module reliability scorecard. PVEL has further alluded to new services that it plans to roll out this year, but did not provide details.

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