Testing lab Kiwa PVEL has revealed its eleventh annual PV Module Reliability Scorecard. This digital useful resource offers photo voltaic trade stakeholders with testing insights gained from Kiwa PVEL’s flagship Product Qualification Program (PQP). The PQP is a complete suite of prolonged reliability and efficiency assessments that consider photo voltaic modules below a variety of environmental and mechanical situations — together with the consequences of utmost temperatures and excessive humidity, in addition to the impacts of mechanical stress, hail and ultraviolet gentle.
Kiwa PVEL
Within the eleventh version, Kiwa PVEL names a complete of fifty producers as “Prime Performers” in a number of of the assessments, with 9 producers named as Prime Performers with a minimum of one mannequin kind listed in every of the seven check classes.
Different key highlights from the 2025 Scorecard embrace:
- Solely 21 mannequin sorts achieved Prime Performer standing in all reliability assessments (thermal biking, damp warmth, mechanical stress sequence, hail stress sequence, potential induced degradation and light-weight induced degradation + LETID), and of these, solely three fashions had been additionally Prime Performers in PAN.
- There are combined outcomes throughout PQP assessments, with some bettering and others trending down. The PID and PAN outcomes improved, however the module breakage fee for MSS and HSS has elevated. Likewise, UVID outcomes are beginning to enhance, however are nonetheless a supply of concern for some.
- 83% of module producers had a minimum of one check failure, up from 66% reported within the 2024 Scorecard, which on the time was the best proportion ever reported.
“The fast tempo of innovation within the PV module panorama is encouraging, and it’s nice to see extra merchandise reaching Prime Performer standing,” mentioned Tristan Erion-Lorico, VP of gross sales and advertising and marketing at Kiwa PVEL. “Nevertheless, we proceed to warning patrons to not assume all modules are created equal. Our testing continues to uncover important variability in efficiency and long-term reliability. The Scorecard stays an important device for navigating these variations, serving to procurement groups make sensible, risk-conscious selections.”
The whole 2025 PV Module Reliability Scorecard is on the market on-line at scorecard.pvel.com. Utilizing the Prime Performers device permits customers to discover detailed check outcomes, filter by producer, module kind, and check class and obtain customized search outcomes for additional evaluation.
“Our 2025 Scorecard reveals each the progress and the challenges that include a dynamic PV module market,” commented Kevin Gibson, managing director of Kiwa PVEL. “For over a decade, we’ve rigorously examined modules to uncover reliability and efficiency traits, and this 12 months was no exception. Whereas not each check outcome exceeded our expectations, many did — demonstrating resilience and excellence in an evolving trade.”
To be eligible for the 2025 Scorecard, producers should have accomplished the PQP pattern manufacturing manufacturing facility witness after October 1, 2023, and submitted a minimum of two factory-witnessed PV module samples to all PQP reliability assessments, as per Kiwa PVEL’s BOM check necessities.
Information merchandise from Kiwa PVEL
