In this year’s ultraviolet-induced degradation (UVID) testing, engineering advisory and test services provider Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), has noticed that 40% of modules tested have returned with a red-flag result.
VDE has acquired a 70% stake in certification and testing company Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), strengthening the technical organisation’s position in the renewables sector.
Recently, PV-Tech featured an extended interview with Cherif Kedir, the President and CEO at the Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), based in Fremont, California, regarding new trends in module reliability and performance testing.
The rapid transition in the upstream manufacturing solar sector to significantly larger p-type and n-type monocrystalline wafers, cells and modules may be hailed as a new era for the industry in higher module performance and a leap in reducing PV power plants LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) in a rapidly changing downstream market that becomes subsidy free, bidding orientated and targeting grid parity and beyond. But issues such as reliability lurk just below the surface.
PV-Tech will reveal all PV module suppliers with PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ classes (premium and second-tier rating categories) at the forthcoming PV ModuleTech 2019 meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 22-23 October 2019.
