Quality

A new interactive map created by the Yale Program on Climate Communication shows the difference in responses and opinions between America’s two political parties across questions of climate change, renewable education and utility procurement.

Product piracy is a well-known threat in many industries, and in solar the risk posed by poor quality products from disreputable manufacturers making their way onto rooftops and other PV installations should not be underestimated. With manufacturers investing in solutions to protect against inferior products bearing their logo, pv magazine looks at the size of the problem.

Solar assets are underperforming far more frequently than official energy estimates would suggest, according to the industry experts who contributed to KwH Analytics’ 2020 solar risk assessment report.

The Covid-19 pandemic featured prominently at this week’s inaugural pv magazine Virtual Roundtables Europe, which took place last week. 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 dealing with markets and specifically the further development of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Europe.

Silfab PV modules are found on NFL stadiums for the Panthers, Browns, Lions, and Steelers — as well as other prestige locations.

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), a test lab for the downstream solar market, just published its PV Module Reliability Scorecard. The lab notes the high level of innovation in the solar module industry and namechecks the market’s reliability leaders — but also observed a resurgence of known failure mechanisms — such as PID.

According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), health risks from lead in crystalline silicon PV panels are one order of magnitude — or about one-tenth — below the risk levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Solar installation inspection results of 100 sites in Rhode Island found 50% of large-scale projects had issues, while 83% of small projects had them – with 30% and 26% of those systems having “critical” issues, respectively.

Walmart’s allegation that some of the fires in the solar plants on the roofs of its stores were started by connectors echoes concerns the industry has had for some time. And the problems go far beyond one manufacturer or installer.

While module makers are attempting to get the best possible scores for their products on 3rd-party tests, 3rd-party testing providers are also offering competing products to rank products. We look at what’s similar and what’s different in the tests.