

The technology has long been used in labs to detect a wide range of hidden module defects.Īnother aspect of forensic analysis is predictive maintenance, wherein a third party inspects plants from periodically to detect issues that may not be visible at a base overview, but could develop into much larger issues if allowed to linger. EL testing uses a special camera system to document the light emissions that occur when an electrical current passes through PV cells. In instances of underperformance, RETC recommends Electroluminescence (EL) testing. This investigation is the culmination of different analyses to be done over the life of a project, starting with a baseline third-party module health assessment during project commissioning. Specifically, RETC is interested in forensic analysis of PV systems to determine the root causes of underperformance. These installations are investments in assets made by banks to yield some sort of financial benefit to them, right? If they have some sort of degradation, then that’s not performing the way that was expected and planned for.” “There are a lot of installations out there degrading at a faster pace than expected. “We focus on what we think are going to be topics that are going to be relevant for the upcoming year, like the onset of N-Type modules, and field services,” explained Chang. RETC Vice President of Business Development Daniel Chang told pv magazine the 2022 PVMI takes a more forward-looking approach than previous editions, supplementing testing results and hardware performance with emerging industry trends that are going to guide the use of this hardware and investments in projects that utilize it into 2023 and beyond. President and CEO Cherif Kedir said the move will allow RETC to expand its testing services to a broader network of manufacturers, investors, insurers and developers, all in pursuit of minimizing risk and uncertainty in favor of long-term reliability, sustainability and profitability by designing better data-driven risk mitigation programs and service products. The 2022 PVMI marks the first edition released since VDE acquired a 70% stake in RECT. The Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC) has released its “2022 PV Module Index” (PVMI) report, highlighting module performance across a variety of lab tests, while also providing industry-cited clarifications on the real-world significance of the results. Clean Power Research: Solar data solutions to maximize PV project performance.Energy Storage North America Special 2018.The smarter E Europe 2019 special edition.Market overview: Microgrid control systems.

Market overview: Large-scale storage systems.
