PV Evolution Labs Pte. and Quantified Energy Labors Pte. Ltd. (QE-Labs), have signed an exclusive agreement to provide drone inspection service in the U.S. Solar market. PVEL will be the provider of QE-Labs’ autonomous drone electroluminescence (EL) imaging technology for conducting front-end field inspections. QE-Labs Singapore will handle back-end data processing.
EL imaging is a method of inspecting solar cells within a photovoltaic (PV), module. It can reveal defects and microcracks. It is used extensively in the quality control of PV manufacturing. PVEL has used an EL tester manual to inspect more than 2GW of PV systems that are underperforming or damaged for years. Currently, EL imaging can only be done on a sampling basis because of the speed and cost limitations of manual inspection technology. PVEL will increase their field testing capabilities to perform faster inspections of large-scale solar assets with the new agreement.
“We are impressed with QE-Labs’ technology, which completed the world’s largest EL inspection in Singapore with a much faster and more cost-effective solution than what is available in the market today,” states Jenya Meydbray, CEO of PVEL. “By leveraging this proprietary technology, PVEL looks forward to bringing this innovative autonomous drone EL solution to the downstream solar community in the U.S.”
PVEL and QE-Labs have teamed up to offer project developers, investors, and asset owners a comprehensive testing service that will ensure the quality assurance and quality control for solar PV power plant over their 25-year lifetime.
Drone EL imaging services are available to assist with the identification and assessment of damaged or underperforming PV modules for insurance and/or warranty claims. They help with initial site-acceptance-testing (SAT) to exclude physically damaged PV modules caused by poor workmanship and detection of early failures before the defect liability period (DLP) ends, including excessive light induced degraded (LID) PV modules. Annual PV module quality health checks are performed to ensure that the PV system is at 100%.
“With established success in our home market, we are ready to deploy our autonomous drone solution in more regional markets to support the growth of the global PV industry,” comments Dr. Wang Yan, CEO of QE-Labs. “This collaboration with PVEL is QE-Labs’ first step towards global expansion based on our drone-enabled Data-as-a-Service business model. QE-Labs and its partners will establish a global network of service providers for clients who can use the autonomous drone EL inspection anytime and anywhere. As global PV installations cross the 1 TW milestone, we hope these innovative services can help drive further investment in and expansion of solar PV projects worldwide.”