Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services has many years of experience in assisting with solar energy projects and can uniquely provide grid protection testing for much of the world from a single location covering VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides.
Our experience in inverters is proven by the fact that we work with many of the top 10 inverter manufacturers worldwide and issue hundreds of certificates every year. We also have an experienced team in PV Panel testing/certification and Pre-Shipment Inspection with experts located around the world in America, Asia and Europe.
Bespoke training: Available covering all aspects of compliance for solar energy suppliers (whole system, inverter, back-up system, controller, etc…)
Consultancy
International Approvals: From market research advising of target market requirements to full homologation services ensuring fast and effective compliance for all your renewable energy products
Testing and Analysis
Regulatory EMC & Safety Testing: against International (Draft IEC 62109, IEC 62103), European (EN 60950, EN 50178) and North American (UL 1741, CSA 22.2-107) requirements. Other country requirements also available on request.
Testing and Analysis
Grid Protection Testing: We are uniquely accredited and appointed to provide inverter testing against all key national grid requirements. Standards we are recognized to test against and accredited for include VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides. Testing against these requirements is all available from a single test and certification center saving sometimes months in time and many tens of thousands in money.
Testing and Analysis
Environmental/Performance Testing: We can provide full testing for solar panels against IEC 61215 for crystalline silicon panels and IEC 61646 for thin film panels
Certification
GS certification: Certification against GS requirements for inverters
Certification
NRTL certification: Certification against US requirements for inverters
Certification
PV Gap certification: Through our IECEE CB Scheme FCS appointment, we can provide quick access to the PV GAP mark for solar panel manufacturers.
Inspection, Audit & Assessment
Pre-Shipment Inspection:Available for all components within a Green Energy system, with particular expertise in the area of solar panels.
Client Benefits >> Solar Inverters
Multi-country grid protection test reports / certificates available from a single location
EMC & Safety Testing available worldwide
Very cost effective solution with industry best turnaround
We have a successful track record of having successfully issued 100’s of Grid Protection certificates all over the world
Client Benefits >> Solar Panels
Single point of contact for Project Management of test, certification and inspection
Partner Labs across Europe and Asia
Bureau Veritas LCIE is one of only a few CB FCS providers worldwide
Qualified Inspectors across Asia ensuring a quick turnaround for PSI
Challenges faced by the Solar Industry / Bureau Veritas Solutions
Solar Inverter / Panel Manufacturers and Buyers face many problems, some of which are outlined below. Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services can assist you not only in overcoming these barriers, but also in benefiting from them.
Your Challenge
Our Solution
Location: If located in the open, inverters need certain levels of rain protection, if installed in a roof space they may need to cope with high temperatures. Inverters also have limits for noise levels they can emit, either audible noise or electromagnetic noise. Panels will always face such problems.
Environmental Testing: Our environmental test laboratories around the world can provide in depth analysis about the environmental performance of your product and can simulate your product's typical life prior to production thereby ensuring costly recalls and returns are avoided.
National/State Variances: The inverter needs to operate without problems for normal fluctuations of voltage and frequency on the utility grid. Different countries operate their utility grids at different voltages and frequencies. Even when they nominally run at the same voltage and frequency they may have different ranges for normal operation and different set points for inverter protection and isolation to cut in at.
Knowledge: Our engineers have the most up-to-date knowledge of the national testing requirements, meaning we can provide you with a requirements document covering all your target countries at design stage thereby enabling you the ability to design compliance into your product.
Grid Interconnection: Grid connection is mostly addressed by national documents and there is still a long way to go to achieve harmonized interconnection requirements and rules
Accreditation: Accredited and recognized by all the major markets of the world, Bureau Veritas Electrical and electronic Product Services can quicklly provide a single test program covering all your target countires from a single location.
In-Country Climatic Differences: Selling to the Spanish market, you must focus on maintaining high efficiencies at higher operating temperatures. whereas temperature is less of an issue for those targeting Germany
Environmental Testing: Our environmental test laboratories around the world can provide in depth analysis about the environmental performance of your product and can simulate your product's typical life prior to production thereby ensuring costly recalls and returns are avoided.
Reliability: PV modules themselves have very few ways they can fail and are normally very long lived. Inverters however contain many parts and can fail in many ways.
Assistance: We have been testing inverters for many years and are a leading provider of debugging advice to not only ensure compliance, but also longevity. Our failure analysis and life testing can also simulate the inverters life to identify possible flaws before they arrive.
Approval Costs: It is difficult to introduce new products, particularly to the US market, because of the overheads involved for getting products approved, such as the NRTL listing for the US, and restraints due to regulations
International Approvals: Working with Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services means you benefit from the most up-to-date advice and cost effective solution in order to facilitate fast compliance. We have relationships with all the major certification bodies and having s one-stop shop for testing, we can provide fast and cost effective compliance.
Solar Facts
“Solar energy" refers to energy that is collected from sunlight and can be used to generate electricity using photovoltaic solar cells, to heat foodstuffs through solar ovens and to generate electricity in geosynchronous orbit using solar power satellites.
World solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations reached a record high of 1,744 megawatts (MW) in 2006, representing growth of 19% over the previous year.
Germany's grid connect PV market grew 16% to 960 Megawatts in 2006 and now accounts for 55% of the world market.
While Japan's market size barely advanced last year, Spain and the United States were the strong performers.
The Spanish market was up over 200% in 2006, while the US market grew 33%.
Global industry revenues were $12bn in 2006
Worldwide industry revenues of between $18bn and $39bn by 2011 are predicted.
Consumer Electronics 
Bureau Veritas Electrical and Electronic Product Services has many years of experience in assisting with solar energy projects and can uniquely provide grid protection testing for much of the world from a single location covering VDE 0126-1-1 (German standard but also the basis for many other countries including France), UL 1741 (USA), DK 5940 (Italy), RD 1663 (Spain), G83/1 (UK), AS 47777.x (Australia), and many more besides.
Non Electrical CPS