Quality Roundtable

pv magazine will hold its 6th Quality Roundtable during the Solar Power International trade show in Las Vegas this September, and we’re looking for all of your darkest stories of projects gone wrong.

This week we saw policy wins in California and New York City, as well as some good signs from Nevada and a promising policy in Massachusetts – not to mention documentation of a big fall in solar costs.

Our new videos from America’s largest solar trade show feature interviews with the CEOs of First Solar and SolarWorld Americas.

pv magazine has expanded its global quality roundtable series with a new roundtable for the U.S. market.

This week saw collaborations between nations and companies, some numbers on the U.S. energy storage market and progress in the carving up of SunEdison, as the solar industry prepares for the Solar Power International trade show.

The trend toward more solar module manufacturers acquiring third-party warranty coverage for their products is helping to mitigate the long-term risk in a project and to make it more bankable, since the likelihood is that insurers will stay in business long after some module manufacturers.

As part of a focus on PV module and system quality in preparation for our Quality Roundtable at the Solar Power International Trade show in Las Vegas, pv magazine brings you an interview with DuPont Research Fellow Bill Gambogi and Director of Corporate Marketing Bob Olsen.

Quality control campaign: PV panel manufacturers selling plug connectors as MC4 compatible is nothing unusual. Two operators who have installed such modules are now struggling with lost insurance coverage and fires.

Changing technology, pressure to cut costs, dizzying price slumps and a number of other issues make solar module quality control as relevant as ever. The danger that modules could fail outright remains slim, so module reliability is still decisive for the success of the investment, explains George Touloupas, Director of Technology and Quality at CEA, in preparation of the 4th pv magazine Quality roundtable at SPI.

Quality roundtable preparation: A case of compromised quality. An operator claims nearly 17% of the modules in his array displayed significant damage after three years. The EPC company concealed the damage from the investor until the warranty had expired. The module manufacturer responded slowly and only out of goodwill.