Photo voltaic testing organizations are getting extra critical about testing photo voltaic panels’ resilience towards hail harm.
VDE Americas and RETC, a part of the VDE Group, as we speak introduce the hail resiliency curve (HRC) take a look at that simulates real-world hailstorm situations the place photo voltaic panels might face quite a few impacts from a spread of hailstone sizes and wind speeds throughout server storms. The HRC take a look at includes firing a collection of small to massive hailstones at low to excessive speeds at photo voltaic panels representing particular fashions and types till glass fracture happens, which supplies photo voltaic builders, house owners and operators correct knowledge for a panel’s “breaking level.”
“Typical hail threat fashions which are relied upon by many within the insurance coverage group are severely antiquated and outdated,” stated Brian Grenko, president and CEO of VDE Americas. “Hail resiliency curve take a look at outcomes present a superior characterization of photo voltaic panel hail resiliency, lowering uncertainty for traders and insurance coverage suppliers.”
Photograph by Dennis Schroeder / NREL
The brand new HRC protocol will enable photo voltaic panel producers to optimize hail-hardened product designs and reveal their efficiency benefits relative to traditional merchandise; venture builders to carry out cost-benefit analyses of various photo voltaic panels and tracker tilt angle combos to mitigate hail harm threat; and insurance coverage suppliers to appropriately right-size hail harm protection and premiums based mostly on empirical knowledge reasonably than hypothesis.
“The photo voltaic trade has lengthy wanted a extra rigorous strategy to hail testing,” stated Cherif Kedir, president and CEO of RETC. “The HRC take a look at fills this data hole by offering our clients with actionable knowledge on photo voltaic panel hail resilience throughout the entire impression vitality spectrum of real-world hailstorms. Furthermore, the rigorous pattern measurement ensures a extra totally vetted photo voltaic panel characterization.”
Glass, photo voltaic and different trade consultants and stakeholders collaborated on the event of the take a look at. Mike Pilliod, president and chief technical officer at supplies engineering agency Central Tension, assisted by offering recommendation on glass efficiency.
“What actually pursuits me as a glass reliability engineer are measurement techniques that present a statistically consultant chance of failure,” he stated. “The use case doesn’t actually matter. Automotive glass, cellphone shows, architectural glass — you title it. Should you’re not breaking glass — and never testing a consultant variety of samples to failure — you’re not doing all of your job as a reliability engineer.
“Should you regularly enhance kinetic impression vitality and take a look at a significant variety of samples to failure, you possibly can generate Weibull distribution curves that plot the chance of glass failure on a product- or invoice of materials-specific foundation with low uncertainty,” Pilliod continued. “Now you possibly can stack these Weibull curves and examine them. Do the curves overlap? If not, you will be moderately sure that there’s a statistical distinction in resiliency.”
Early adopters of the take a look at program signify a broad cross part of the photo voltaic manufacturing panorama, starting from publicly traded module and tracker corporations to venture-backed startups.
“We use the HRC take a look at to qualify glass suppliers and revolutionary product designs,” stated Chad Medcroft, SVP of worldwide vitality companies at flat-ground-mounted photo voltaic firm Erthos. “Because the inventor of Earth Mount Photo voltaic, our focus is on module resilience reasonably than tracker operation. As a result of this strategy challenges conference, we fee rigorous third-party testing to offer clients, insurers and finance companions full confidence in our expertise.”
Information merchandise from VDE
