RETC (Renewable Energy Test Center)

"Chinese solar leaders have called for an end to the toxic competition on module prices that has sent prices tumbling, at last week’s 2024 Annual Conference of the Photovoltaic Industry. At the event, attended by PV Tech Premium, industry leaders reflected on the challenges facing the Chinese solar industry, including unsustainably low prices, and a greater push for localised manufacturing, rather than international imports, in key markets such as North America and Europe. Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA)....noted that, while Chinese PV exports grew year-on-year in the first ten months of the year, the fall in prices meant that the value of these exports has fallen year-on-year." https://lnkd.in/gKxuWAin

"The growing trend of building larger and thinner #PV modules has contributed to an increased number of breaks in module glass at utility-scale #solar projects, although there is no single contributing factor more influential than the others. These are the conclusions drawn by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which published its findings in a paper assessing the impacts of module design on glass vulnerability titled ‘Tough Break: Many Factors Make Glass Breakage More Likely’. The report identifies 'spontaneous breakage' – cracks that emerge across panels with no clear point of origin such as a hailstone – occurring more often in thinner and larger modules, particularly those using sheets of glass thinner than 3.2mm, or 'usually' as thin as just 2mm." https://lnkd.in/gz73vXiV

Learn how commonsense solar project design and operational measures can prevent catastrophic hail damage, the leading cause of insured losses.

Do the up-front cost savings associated with PV module value engineering efforts come at the expense of reduced resilience to field conditions of use? To learn more about how module glass breakage signatures have evolved over time, we interviewed Ralf Schulze, an expert in quality assurance, failure mode and effects analysis, system diagnostics, and corrective and preventative maintenance. Check out this subject matter expert interview from our 2024 PV Module Index Report: https://lnkd.in/gd_xx4UQ

Hail damage to solar farms is major concern in large swaths of the Great Plains. The economic impacts include increased insurance costs, production losses, and potential environmental concerns from damaged panels. Today on the Clean Power Hour, I sit down with Jon Previtali from VDE Americas to discuss this critical issue. With insurance claims soaring and some projects becoming uninsurable, it's time we address this challenge head-on. In this episode, we dive into: The true economic impact of hail damage on solar farms Innovative testing methods for module resilience Cutting-edge hail monitoring and stow protocols The role of tracker angles in mitigating damage How the insurance industry is responding Whether you're a solar developer, asset owner, or passionate about renewable energy, this episode is packed with valuable insights you won't want to miss. https://lnkd.in/gPq2rRki David Brearley Jay M. Wong Tigercomm

"RETC Chief Executive Cherif Kedir said, in a September 2024 pv magazine Global magazine webinar, that UV degradation is a cumulative effect and even where testing has shown a module is susceptible to UV damage, longer term observation is needed to indicate the progression over time. 'We’re trying to perform long term UV exposures to see if [a PV module] keeps degrading every year,' said Kedir, adding that another unknown is whether even low-level UV degradation could then trigger other weaknesses or degradation mechanisms. 'These are all issues that are not known by the industry and there’s a lot of research going on.'" "TOPCon producers appear to have more opportunity to address the issue at the cell level, and that is also the approach favored by module testing experts. 'I would feel a lot more comfortable with cells that don’t exhibit the susceptibility,' said RETC’s Kedir. 'Fixing problems at the root cause is always better and it’s always cheaper, because a film adds cost.'" Read more: Solving the UV problem of n-type solar https://lnkd.in/gw4CsQH9

ICYMI: "Large-format modules, and concerns about how to support them, are not new. The cover article of our Spring 2020 edition, 'Mounting and Cracking' examined the structural durability issues inherent with large-format solar modules. But, as RETC notes in the intro of this report, we all might have understated or misunderstood all of the impacts: 'The early warning efforts documented in our article, Evaluating Large-Format PV Modules, are simultaneously prescient and naïve. While we had clearly identified a signal in our laboratory testing and field forensics—namely, structural vulnerabilities associated with newer module designs—we did not necessarily understand the root cause of the issue.'" https://lnkd.in/gAyAmY32

Is a decline in the compressive strength of solar module glass partly to blame for some of the unique field failure modes associated with new ultra-large-format PV module designs? To learn more about glass manufacturing and reliability science, we interviewed James Webb of Corning Incorporated for RETC's sixth annual PV Module Index Report. https://lnkd.in/eaUGThcx

“A tiny town in North Carolina that’s just been devastated by hurricane Helene could end up severely disrupting the global supply chain for microchips and solar panels. Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, the community of Spruce Pine, population 2,194, is known for its hiking, local artists and as America’s sole source of high-purity quartz. Helene dumped more than 2 feet of rain on the town, destroying roads, shops and cutting power and water.” https://lnkd.in/ej5uP_4u

Our 2024 PVMI Awards Ceremony was a huge success! We appreciate everyone who joined us and hope for an even bigger turnout in 2025. This event celebrates module companies that meet RETC's high achievement criteria for #PV module reliability, performance, and quality—as determined by rigorous beyond-certification testing. So, the best way to get a VIP ticket to the event is to submit PV modules for evaluation according to our rigorous Thresher Test product qualification program. Introduced at the 2011 PV Module Quality Assurance Forum, RETC's Thresher Test is the #solar industry’s first-ever commercial reliability and durability analysis standard for PV modules. The program takes its name from a type of farm equipment used to separate high-quality seed and grain from low-quality straw and chaff. Much as a threshing machine beats plants to separate organic materials according to utility and desirability, the Thresher Test uses highly accelerated stress sequences to separate high-quality PV module designs from low-quality ones. Contact your product manager to submit projects now!