TUV Rheinland PTL has created two new American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards relating to solar power and is seeking industry participation in the respective standards working groups.
Stakeholders include manufacturers of photovoltaic modules, project investors and developers, utility companies, PV consumers, and incentive programs, as well as engineering and insurance companies. The new standards are TUV-R 71732-01:201X (Qualification PLUS (Q+) Testing for PV Modules) – Test and Sampling Requirements) and TUV-R 71733-01:201X (Quality Management System (QMS) Requirements for PV Manufacturing).
TUV says the Q+ test and sampling requirements go beyond the current qualification testing per the IEC 61215 standard. The objective of the test sequence is to test for degradation losses and reliability failures caused by components (encapsulant, connectors, cables, junction boxes and bypass diodes) and modules (solder bond, ribbon, cells and high-system voltages).
TUV-R 71733-01:201X describes the QMS requirements specifically for PV module manufacturing. The objective of the QMS certification is to minimize the quality issues specific to the PV module production, such as storage and production environment, supply chain and manufacturing traceability, selection of vendors, incoming inspections of materials and sub-assemblies, routine tests on 100% of the product, burn-in and lot-acceptance tests, and a periodic monitoring program.
QMS will be the co-requisite for the Q+ testing and certification.
