UL Launches Solar Inspection Certificate Service for Small PV Power Plants
UL LLC (Underwriters Laboratories) announces a new offering of a PV Power Plant Certificate: a solar plant verification and inspection service for photovoltaic (PV) power plants for commercial and industrial to large megawatt-scale projects.
UL now offers this service to solar plant developers, owners and financiers as an affordable option for third-party independent assessment of a PV power plant's creditability and quality. The delivered certificate attests that a PV power plant complies with the criteria outlined in the inspection program, based on the IEC 62446-1 standard, at the time of the inspection. All PV plant inspection certificates will be made publicly accessible on UL's online directory.
"The value of this service is that it provides a publicly accessible inspection certificate - evidence that demonstrates the quality of the solar plant UL reviewed," said Evan Xiao, director of UL's Solar Services Program.
"Small developers will benefit from UL's reputation as an independent third-party inspection and verification provider, which will enhance the creditability of the certificate owner in the eyes of financiers and customers,” Xiao added.
The goal of this new service is to verify the performance of PV systems at stages of commissioning or during operation. UL offers two tiers of assessment that include a desktop review of the power plant's components, visual field inspection, and different levels of testing of a plant's components for safety and performance.
This service is now available globally. Though this service is targeted to small PV power plants, UL expects that this offering will be useful to developers and owners of larger PV plants as well.
