Kiwa’s PV Module Procurement Best Practices

The solar industry faces unprecedented demand, rapid technological innovation, and significant uncertainty. PV module buyers must navigate a dynamic market with constant changes in factories, technologies, and policies, which increases solar procurement and deployment risks. A robust quality management program is essential.

Kiwa’s Solar Module Procurement Quality Management Program is based on five fundamental rules for PV module buyers:

  1. A PV module’s quality is determined by the quality of its component parts and manufacturing consistency.
  2. Adequate testing prevents failures and underperformance. Warranties do not.
  3. Manufacturers set their own quality standards unless buyers intervene.
  4. Trust but verify the quality of delivered modules.
  5. Have a plan to address issues before they arise.

Key Risks for PV Module Buyers

Contractual Risks

Standard PV module supply agreements often have vague technical and quality assurance requirements, allowing suppliers to alter products without recourse for buyers. These boilerplate contracts limit buyers' ability to address product changes, quality issues, delivery delays, transportation damage, and price changes.

Technical Risks

Most PV technology sold today is fundamentally different from products deployed in the past: they use different materials, product designs, cell chemistry, and form factors. Real-world data that validates the field performance of modern PV modules does not exist. Extended reliability testing and performance characterizations can protect buyers from unforeseen problems with new technology.

Manufacturing Risks

New or expanded factories and production lines often experience growing pains as staff are trained and equipment is calibrated. Risks are highest in countries that lack existing PV capacity and in factories operated by newly established OEMs. Auditing factories, overseeing production, and inspecting finished goods mitigates risks of manufacturing defects and transportation damage.

Policy Risks

Trade policies and geopolitics have disrupted procurement agreements and supply chains. Cost pressures (some to off-set tariffs) bring in new or questionable up-stream suppliers. Buyers should vet supply chain traceability and assess environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies to limit exposure to policy risks.

Best Practices for Buyers, Owners and Investors

Qualify the product

    • Use the independent extended reliability and performance testing results from Kiwa PVEL’s Product Qualification Program (PQP) to identify well performing bills of materials combinations (BOMs). Seemingly small BOM changes can dramatically change product quality, and datasheets typically cover dozens of different BOMs.
    • Buying BOMs that perform well in testing reduces the risk of costly field failures, underperformance, and warranty claims due to subpar materials and unproven technology. It also ensures consistency in your project and can facilitate future project transactions.

Set contractual requirements

    • Use contracts to minimize ambiguity and uncertainty in the transaction. Specify BOMs (instead of generic PV module models), quality requirements, and corrective actions to close loopholes for the manufacturer.
    • Establish clear go/no-go criteria that strictly define the buyer’s rights to reject modules and the manufacturers’ obligations to remedy defects.
    • Manage exposure to ESG and importation risks by modifying contract language covering these areas.
    • Push responsibility for meeting contractual terms onto the manufacturer as much as possible.
    • Do not allow manufacturers the unilateral right to change product specifications, installation manuals, or pricing.

Audit the factory

    • Pre-production factory audits help buyers assess the factory’s overall performance and identify potential problems.
    • Conduct audits a few weeks prior to production for your project so issues are addressed in advance of your project’s production.
    • Factory audits help determine the level of production oversight and finished goods inspection required for your project plus identify specific areas for auditors to prioritize.

Verify production quality

    • Conduct production oversight on a significant portion of the PV modules produced for your project to:
        • Ensure your BOM and quality requirements are met.
        • Confirm corrective action from audits.
        • Monitor factory equipment and operation.
        • Oversee adherence to quality standards and supply contract.
    • Use pre-shipment inspections on random finished goods to validate PV modules meet your specifications and identify defects. The process screens out defective products before they reach the field, when replacements are far more expensive.
    • Perform both Batch Testing and Ongoing Reliability Monitoring on PV modules from the production line in a Kiwa lab or at the factory’s lab with an independent witness and verification. Validate test results match previous BOM qualification test results. Discrepancies may indicate problems on the production line or with BOM components.
    • Complete container loading inspections to ensure PV modules are protected from damage during transportation and that the modules monitored and inspected during production are delivered to you and not another one of manufacturer’s customers.

Validate quality onsite

    • Post-delivery acceptance inspections of PV modules should occur prior to installation. These inspections identify potential in-transit damage, including cell micro cracks that can impact module performance and reliability.
    • Diagnose underperformance and field failures as they arise with advanced testing on-site. This testing can reduce uncertainty in warranty claims and expedite the resolution of issues.

The Bottom Line

PV module buyers must advocate for themselves and should take action during procurement, production and delivery to assure equipment quality throughout the project lifecycle. The tactics outlined here were developed over years of in-factory experience representing buyers, investors and owners. They make up the Kiwa’s Solar Module Procurement Quality Management Program, a holistic suite of best practices that reduce risk at each step of solar development.

You can start managing risk and quality at any point in the project lifecycle, even when your supplier has begun production of PV modules. Kiwa works with buyers to implement quality management measures at any stage of project development to ensure they receive the quality and expected yield from their investment.

Ready to design your Quality Management Program?

Contact Kiwa PI Berlin today.