QPV will play a key role in the development of new procedures for quality control and optimization of the operation of PV installations.
This Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 October marks the kick-off of the European R&D project SERENDI-PV, in which the European Commission has placed its trust to address some of the main challenges that solar photovoltaic energy will face in the coming years. In SERENDI-PV, 20 entities – including companies and research institutes – from 8 different countries have joined forces and experience to pursue two major objectives:
- Improve the operation of photovoltaic installations, increase their lifetime and reliability, to reduce risks and uncertainty and increase the benefits associated with investment in this technology.
- Prepare for scenarios of high penetration of photovoltaic in the electric grid, guaranteeing its stability and including energy storage systems.
Over the next four years, multidisciplinary teams from leading entities in the sector, such as Tecnalia, Solargis, CEA, Ingeteam, Cobra Group, Cegasa, THU, Lucisun or WIP, among others, will address challenges that will consolidate the large-scale growth of photovoltaic solar energy at European level, incorporating the needs of new technologies such as bifacial modules and floating installations, as well as the integration of batteries.
This ambitious project, with a budget of more than €12 million, will build on the advances obtained by eight previous research projects and will bring to market commercial solutions in 20 business lines related to testing equipment, quality control and software for simulation and analysis of the operation of the facilities. The results obtained will lead to a decrease in the cost of energy generation (LCoE), lower uncertainty and an increase in the rates of return on investment associated with photovoltaic projects, through the following lines of work:
- Improved simulation of production expectations and adjustment to actual results.
- Increased plant availability through early detection and diagnosis of faults.
- Reduction of the WACC through increased predictability in the operation of the systems.
To achieve these objectives, SERENDI-PV relies on data from a portfolio of more than 500,000 installations representing 10 GW.
The development of quality control and field test procedures
From QPV, we bring to the project our experience in quality control, monitoring and analysis of the operation of large photovoltaic power plants (+3.5 GW over 13 years). Among other tasks, QPV leads the working group responsible for developing and field testing procedures and equipment of low uncertainty for:
- Dirt measurement and its effective impact on generators.
- Measurement of module degradation in the field (LID, LeTID, ageing…) as well as obtaining I-V curves of modules and series with high measurement rates.
- Quality control in bifacial power plants: albedo, bifaciality, operating conditions and irradiance dehomogeneity, impact of support structures, I-V curves, acceptance tests…
- Quality control in floating power plants: analysis of temperature, dirt, insulation, irradiance dehomogeneity, mismatching…
- Field quality control of inverters and storage systems, including their integration with the power grid.