Formalizing quality control of installed PV systems

Commissioning  formalizes quality control of installed PV systems. It  ensures that systems are safe and high performing while encouraging integrators to be responsible for their installations, facilitates project closeout, and prompt payment. Satisfied customers become repeat customers and lead to referrals. It’s essential to the growth of the industry and to the overarching goal of installing more renewable energy systems.
 

Understanding rapid and efficient project commissioning 

Understanding the importance of rapid and efficient project commissioning can become a strong leverage for solar projects. There’s a few methods to bring the  speed of commissioning. The result brings the potential to impact the economics of a project. 
Rapid commissioning brings labor cost savings, especially in states like California where union workers wages are pricey. It results in bringing more revenue from the generation of electricity sooner. Project commissioning has been more efficient, just as modules, inverters, and actual construction times have improved overtime as well. 
 

Commissioning process

This is crucial in the solar industry; the competition and thinning margins makes it a  need to squeeze out unnecessary costs to build a solar power plant isincreasingly important. “The commissioning process is part of the capex investment for the whole PV plant, and it’s a significant enough part of the initial capex that easing commissioning through labor and material savings can really contribute to the overall capex savings of the system,” said Jiyong Lian, director of services for Huawei’s North America Smart PV Plant Solution. Huawei applied the power of string inverter design to speed commissioning, especially for larger central inverters.

Commissioning with central inverters requires a technician from the inverter manufacturer be present. This slows down the process and adds expense to commissioning because of travel, scheduling and the added cost of paying the technician. String inverters are lightweight so their commissioning is accelerated by using  a cluster rack and an integrated transformer with the AC and combiner box. Commissioning for string inverters can go faster because they have fewer safety issues. The evolution of string inverter technology also improves commissioning pace and efficiency.Although First Solar has limited experience commissioning string inverters, Lauterbach said the company’s initial experiences have been good. One aspect that is particularly appealing is the fact that there is no need to troubleshoot if one of the inverters isn’t working. After the commissioning process, just ship the non-functional inverters back to the faster commissioning through an increased use of plug-and-play equipment components.

Solar power is here to stay, and the sooner you explore how much you can save, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits of residential solar power. Go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. It tells you how much solar power you need, and how much you can save. Please visit our solar blog to find out more about the benefits of going solar.