[RE-wrenches] Picking a Quality Chinese PV Module

[Peter Parrish]

Bob-O

Your iPhone/Blackberry/Droid was mfgd in China, so was your flat panel
monitor (no, not your TV, your PC monitor), so was your Xantrex inverter,
virtually every printed circuit board in every piece of electronics you own.
Our only hope as a country is to be the best in engineering and stay that
way. Love has nothing to do with it.

- Peter

Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President
California Solar Engineering, Inc.
820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26
peter.parrish at calsolareng.com  
Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885

 
-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Bob-O
Schultze
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 4:30 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Picking a Quality Chinese PV Module

If you like buying your oil from the Mideast and think that's a good idea,
then you will love buying your PV from China.

On Jul 19, 2010, at 3:14 PM, Peter Parrish wrote:

We normally take a very conservative approach to accepting new product,
whether they be PV modules or inverters. As a result for example we never
gave SunTech much of chance back in 2004, although I must say that our
evaluation of SunTech was exacerbated by a terrible relationship with their
SoCal distributor.

I believe that we have to jump in and take a hard look at the PV modules
coming out of China from an engineering point of view. Perhaps the
discussion will transition off list, but for now I think that we should have
a broad discussion as to HOW to evaluate these modules.

(1) UL and its sister organizations test for safety, no? What are the
European equivalents to UL and how do they differ in any important respect?

(2) Here in California, for grid-tied systems we need CEC listing, which
normally comes from a NRTL (acronym correct?). I believe that today the CEC
listing is based on NOCT and temperature coefficient of power. I understand
that TUV is also recognized as a lab by CEC. But for utility scale projects,
we won't need CEC listing.

Beyond that, how do we know if it is a prudent move to purchase 20-50 kW of
an off-brand for a limited scale installation? 

I heard that Canadian Solar cells were manufactured from "Grade B" silicon,
compared to "Grade A". What can that possibly mean? I spent 8 hours on the
floor at InterSolar a few days ago, and I didn't get the same answer from
any two Chinese PV manufacturers--about of any technical question beyond
what one can garner from the cut sheet.

Without having any better idea, I have asked one manufacturer to supply us
with two each of their "240 W to 270 W Class" modules (2 of poly and 2 of
single crystal). We plan to subject give them a VERY careful inspection in
house and then devise some sort of mid-term (4 month) test under Coachella
Valley conditions.

What are other folks doing?

- Peter


Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President
California Solar Engineering, Inc.
820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26
peter.parrish at calsolareng.com  
Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885
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