Dutch-German quality assurance firm Sinovoltaics has released a free browser-based tool that generates project-specific lab testing strategies for utility-scale solar projects, sorting 19 lab tests by priority and attaching ISO 2859-1 sample sizes to each.
Image: Markus Spiske, Unsplash
Sinovoltaics has launched an online tool that generates project-specific PV module test plans based on site and technology inputs.
The PV Lab Test Advisor, available at labadvisor.sinovoltaics.com, takes seven project inputs – size and module power, climate zone, environmental conditions, cell technology, module configuration, and encapsulant type – and returns a prioritized list of recommended tests with sample sizes and suggested pass/fail criteria. Output is a downloadable PDF intended to be agreed with the supplier before the supply contract is signed.
The tool is designed to replace testing scopes copied from project to project regardless of climate, technology, or site conditions. Sinovoltaics said the difference between a generic and a calibrated test scope on a 200 MW project is typically a six-figure swing in lab spend, and said the swing in long-term performance risk is larger still.
“A 200 MW tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) project on the Vietnamese coast and a 50 MW PERC project in Finland face fundamentally different degradation risks,” said Arthur Claire, director of technology at Sinovoltaics. “IEC 61215 and IEC 61730 qualification testing is a necessary minimum, but it will not protect you against any raw material quality variation related to the specific bill of materials used to manufacture your modules, and it is not designed to predict 25 to 30 years of field performance under specific project conditions.”
The advisor scores tests against single-factor and multi-factor rules, the latter capturing compounded risk that no individual input would surface – such as large-format bifacial modules in coastal high-wind environments. Each recommendation carries a written justification keyed to the specific input combination. Sample sizes use ISO 2859-1 Special Inspection Levels rather than General Inspection Levels, which Sinovoltaics said would otherwise require 125 to 200 modules per lot. Pass/fail criteria are drawn from governing standards where they exist and from industry practice where they do not.
Sinovoltaics cited NREL research finding that UV exposure can cause non-recoverable degradation of 2.3% to 3.2% in TOPCon cells after a one-year equivalent UV dose – losses the company said are severe enough to exceed typical module warranty limits and largely invisible to existing qualification tests.
Claire said the current release does not yet take bill-of-materials inputs and works from project conditions rather than the specific bill of materials behind each module.
“It supplements IEC qualification testing, it does not replace it. The one limitation in the current release is that it does not yet take bill-of-materials (BOM) inputs,” he said. “It works from project conditions rather than the specific BOM behind each module. And as with any sampling-based approach, what comes out is a risk-calibrated recommendation. It is not a guarantee that every defect in a multi-hundred-megawatt shipment will be caught, and we would not want anyone using it as one.”
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