TÜV NORD Xu Tingting: The reliability of China's photovoltaic products is recognized by the international market

In recent years, Chinese photovoltaic companies have gradually accelerated their "going out to sea". In the first half of this year, my country's photovoltaic product exports hit a new high. According to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, from January to June this year, the export volume of all major manufacturing links in my country's photovoltaic industry chain maintained significant growth. Specifically, exports of silicon wafers, cells, and modules increased by 34.5%, 32.1% and 19.7% respectively.

As the global market demand for photovoltaic products continues to rise, the reliability of photovoltaic products has also become a concern for consumers.

What is the reliability of photovoltaic products? What are the environmental and economic benefits of ensuring photovoltaic reliability? How reliable is China's photovoltaic products? How should my country further improve the reliability of photovoltaic products in the future? Focusing on these issues, our reporter interviewed Xu Tingting, senior vice president of global renewable energy at TÜV NORD.

The reliability of photovoltaic products is of great significance to improving economic and environmental benefits

China Environment News: What is the reliability of photovoltaic products?

Xu Tingting:The reliability of photovoltaic products is a comprehensive indicator covering multiple aspects, mainly including the following four aspects.

The first is component durability, that is, photovoltaic modules need to be able to withstand long-term natural environmental erosion, such as ultraviolet radiation, high temperatures, low temperatures, humidity changes, sandstorms, etc., while maintaining a reasonable attenuation rate.

The second is system stability. The integrated design of photovoltaic systems needs to ensure that photovoltaic modules, inverters and other related balanced components work together.

The third is manufacturing quality. A high-standard manufacturing process can reduce various defects, such as hidden cracks, false welding, etc., which may affect the long-term operating performance of photovoltaic power plants.

When photovoltaic products are exported overseas, they need to pass certification from international authoritative organizations to ensure product reliability and safety. Many countries and regions have formulated preferential policies and subsidy measures to encourage the development of the photovoltaic industry and improve the reliability of photovoltaic products.

China Environment News: What economic and environmental benefits will be brought by improving the reliability of photovoltaic products?

Xu Tingting: Highly reliable photovoltaic products will not only bring economic benefits, but also bring good environmental benefits.

On the one hand, highly reliable photovoltaic products can reduce power outages and maintenance costs caused by equipment failures, and reduce overall operation and maintenance costs. Moreover, the higher the reliability of a photovoltaic product, the higher its power generation efficiency, which can generate more electricity under the same lighting conditions and improve economic benefits.

On the other hand, as a representative of clean energy, the high reliability of photovoltaic products means that they can more stably replace traditional fossil energy power generation, thereby reducing carbon emissions and environmental pollution, helping to promote the popularization and application of clean energy, and promoting global energy structure optimization and sustainable development.

The reliability of photovoltaic products is of great significance to ensuring long-term stable operation of photovoltaic systems and improving economic and environmental benefits. At home and abroad, we are actively working hard in terms of photovoltaic reliability, continuously improving the reliability level of photovoltaic products through various means such as technology research and development, standard formulation, and operation and maintenance management.

China's photovoltaic product reliability is in an absolute leading position

China Environment News: How do testing agencies measure the reliability of my country's photovoltaic products?

Xu Tingting:As a third-party testing and certification agency, TÜV NORD has accumulated experience in providing customers with comprehensive testing and certification services throughout the entire product supply chain, from photovoltaic modules and components to photovoltaic power generation systems.

We generally use IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards as the basis for reliability evaluation of Chinese photovoltaic products, especially export products. Among them, IEC 61215 IEC 61730 series standards are the basic standard for reliability assessment of photovoltaic products.

In addition, Chinese photovoltaic companies will conduct more dimensional and in-depth testing and evaluation of their products. For example, full-scene application testing is carried out, including salt spray corrosion resistance, ammonia corrosion resistance, acid fog corrosion resistance, sand and dust resistance, UVID resistance, PID resistance, intensified hail, ultra-high-speed wind tunnel, and offshore photovoltaic applications; accelerated aging testing, including extended stress testing, intensified thermal cycle testing, and composite aging testing; material and component testing, including junction boxes, cables, connectors, front plates, backplates, composite frames, etc., for type test evaluations.

The reason why Chinese photovoltaic companies measure their products through a series of strict testing standards is to evaluate the performance, durability and safety of photovoltaic products.

China Environment News: How reliable is China's photovoltaic products?

Xu Tingting:In recent years, China's photovoltaic industry has made significant progress in technology research and development. The conversion efficiency of photovoltaic modules has continued to improve, and manufacturing costs have continued to decline. These technological advances have directly improved the reliability of photovoltaic products.

As far as I know, in recent years, when Chinese photovoltaic products go to sea, in order to ensure that the products meet high standards of quality requirements, Chinese photovoltaic companies will actively participate in international and domestic testing and certification. For example, in the annual photovoltaic module reliability scorecard released by PVEL, the world's leading photovoltaic module reliability and performance testing laboratory, many Chinese companies performed well.

Moreover, China's photovoltaic products are highly competitive in the international market, and export volume continues to grow, which to a certain extent also reflects that the reliability of China's photovoltaic products has been recognized by the international market.

China Environment News: Compared with photovoltaic products in other countries, what is the level of reliability of China's photovoltaic products?

Xu Tingting: It can be said that compared with the reliability of photovoltaic products in other countries, China's photovoltaic products are in an absolute leading position.

From a technical perspective, whether it is photovoltaic devices such as crystalline silicon batteries, perovskite batteries, and laminated batteries, almost all world records for efficiency are maintained by Chinese companies. These technological advantages are further transformed into industrial advantages.

At present, only China in the world has a complete photovoltaic industry chain. From upstream silicon materials, midstream battery modules to downstream power generation systems, all links have strong production and supporting capabilities. This complete industrial chain provides a strong guarantee for improving the reliability of photovoltaic products.

In addition, China's photovoltaic products are highly competitive in the international market, not only in price advantages, but also in product quality and reliability. Compared with other countries, China's photovoltaic products are at a high level in terms of reliability.

What are the other challenges facing product reliability in the photovoltaic industry?

China Environment News: As a third-party photovoltaic product testing organization, in what other aspects can the reliability of photovoltaic modules be improved during laboratory testing?

Xu Tingting:In 2016, TUV NORD began to cooperate with China and Laos on the R & D reliability verification and full-process quality monitoring of n-type photovoltaic products. It truly saw that China's efficiency improvement rate from nPERT to nTOPCon was very alarming.

In addition, since 2019, China's photovoltaic industry has successively launched various application solutions for large-area, rectangular sheet, asymmetric cutting and other size. While slightly improving component efficiency and greatly increasing component power, it also brings products Some reliability risks, current/temperature/load (please elaborate). Of course, in the past year, we have also been very happy to see that the industry has gradually begun to unify, and the component size is basically fixed to a limited number of size options.

However, due to the sensitivity of TOPCon and HJT to water vapor, the market share of double glass has increased year by year. With the application and continuous improvement of photovoltaic LECO technology on TOPCon, subsequent application scenarios of single glass can still be seen. After all, single glass is lightweight and front high-strength tempered glass still has certain advantages. It should also be mentioned here that we have tested a lot of n-type BC products at present. They have good reliability on water vapor and perform well when applied to single glass and even lightweight components.

Our principle is that while technology is advancing rapidly, reliability must be taken into account. We can even put forward an idea whether all our new products must meet all application scenarios, and whether we can reduce the warranty for some needs. This idea is also for everyone to think about.

China Environment News: How should photovoltaic companies overcome the above reliability challenges?

Xu Tingting:Over the years, organizations such as the China Photovoltaic Industry Association have been promoting the formulation and implementation of reliability standards for photovoltaic products to ensure that photovoltaic products meet high reliability requirements during production, installation and use.

In the next step, companies need to continuously increase investment in research and development, improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency and durability of photovoltaic modules by improving materials and processes, and through the application of new materials and new processes; they can also optimize the photovoltaic system according to local climate and power grid conditions. Design to improve the stability and adaptability of the system.

At the same time, relevant departments also need to establish and improve operation and maintenance management systems, strengthen monitoring and early warning of the operating status of photovoltaic systems, and promptly discover and deal with potential problems; and formulate and improve a reliability standard system for photovoltaic products to ensure that photovoltaic products are produced, installed and meet high reliability requirements during use.