The 17^th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition in October 2001 in Munich gave the opportunity for RWE Schott Solar and Photowatt International to discuss with the Global Approval Program for Photovoltaics (PV GAP) the possibility of obtaining PV GAP’s "PV Quality Mark" for their PV modules, via certification under the IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components (IECQ) which is currently providing the product certification service for PV GAP. The Mark is international, dedicated to PV components (there is also a Seal for Systems), and accepted by the World Bank in its programs.

1. WHY A PV QUALITY MARK IS NEEDED

Manufacturers need the PV Quality Mark to distinguish their quality products from products of unknown quality. Applying the Mark to a product gives the customer easy recognition of quality products. A Quality Certificate is a nice decoration in the manufacturer’s lobby, but the PV Quality Mark displayed on the product is where the customer recognises value.

Clearly the Mark can be displayed on the product only if the product fulfils the criteria decided upon by the PV industry and donor organisations, and that is certified by a certification (i.e. independent third-party) process.

The paper shows that the certification process is relatively simple. It is also basically inexpensive, as has been shown in a previous paper [1].

2. MANUFACTURER APPROVAL

A pre-requisite for IECQ certification is Manufacturer Approval, which is quality management system approval to ISO 9001:2000 [2] for the manufacturing (including testing, if appropriate) activity in the relevant product standard, under the responsibility of one of IECQ’s Supervising Inspectorates (SIs). The SI normally audits the manufacturer twice a year, but after two years this may be reduced to once a year if there have been no significant failures to comply with the Rules of IECQ and no significant product or process failures. Incidentally, there is no limit to the number of SIs that may operate in any particular country, and there is reciprocal recognition amongst all of the SIs of their IECQ work .

RWE Schott Solar obtained Manufacturer Approval from the SI, VDE Testing and Certification Institute in Offenbach, to IEC 61646 [3] for thin-film modules.

Photowatt International obtained Manufacturer Approval from the SI, LCIE/SNQ, near Paris, to IEC 61215 [4] for crystalline silicon modules.

If a manufacturer already has an appropriate ISO 9001: 2000 certificate from an accredited registrar, this is accepted as part of the Manufacturer Approval.

For every component family, in this case crystalline modules and thin-film modules, the IECQ provides a Blank Detail Specification (or Blank Product Quality Assessment Specification) which, when filled in by the manufacturer, makes it possible for the IECQ to certify the component to the relevant Standard (here, IEC 61215 and IEC 61646 respectively) on an on-going basis. The manufacturer integrates his data sheet information into the BDS and accepts the certification conditions laid down in the BDS covering

• IECQ Qualification Approval procedure,

• quality conformance inspection, including periodic tests and acceptance criteria,

• modifications likely to require re-testing,

• modifications not requiring re-testing,

• marking,

• structural similarity rules for testing, in this case, testing a representative module, instead of testing all modules in the same structural family, and

• documentation.

The resulting Detail Specification is then agreed with the SI.

As neither manufacturer was familiar with IECQ product certification, Secretariat guidance was necessary to create these first Detail Specifications. It was also discovered that some of the requirements for periodic testing, e.g. repetition of the hail-test when no changes to a module had been made, were unrealistic and should be deleted or relaxed. As the BDS had originally been written by PV GAP, because no such document was available from IEC TC 82, the PV GAP Technical Committee quickly considered the matter, amended the BDS, had it approved by the PV GAP Board, and transmitted it to IECQ in time for the completion of the certification exercise.

IECQ accepts to use for PV certification only IEC Standards, or PV GAP Recommended Specifications (PVRSs) which are approved as IECQ provisional specifications.

The Detail Specifications generated for the RWE Schott Solar and Photowatt International modules certification were IEC 61646 DE 0001 [5] and IEC 61215 FR 0001 [6] respectively. They are listed by the IECQ on www.iecq.org and by PV GAP on www.pvgap.org and are publicly available.