Exploitable results Eurec agency test network: testings, norms, reliability; complement and harmonisation The establishment of European standards in the field reliability testing for solar energy systems, both photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal, is of primary importance for the development of the industry. The exhaustive review of existing standards and testing procedures conducted during this study has made a significant contribution to their future consolidation and harmonisation. There is currently no harmonisation of reliability testing procedures and standards within the European solar industry. The consolidation of these disparate approaches would be of significant benefit to both the market and the industry. The aim of this project was to bring together, on a European scale, expertise in the field of reliability testing, norms and standards with respect to solar PV and solar thermal technology. The project had four specific objectives which were: firstly, to generate a database of applicable standards and codes; secondly, develop and harmonise test criteria, methods and procedures among the different laboratories dealing with solar energy technologies in Europe; thirdly, to evaluate new methods, including accelerated testing to predict the lifetime of certain PV systems and components, and the simplified field calibration of solar irradiance sensors. Two test methods which are not well developed were to be developed and evaluated. These were: special tests on solar irradiance sensor calibration and PV dark I-V testing; and ageing testing of typical PV power pumps. Probabilistic methods will be used to predict the performance of the pumping system in time. Finally, a round robin of testing for selected PV system components was to be organised under the project to evaluate the procedures selected. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
