Quality assurance of large scale PV power plants

An overview on quality assurance measures for large-scale PV power plants is given. Areas discussed include yield assessment, module testing and power rating, on-site system testing and yield monitoring. In addition, we present a procedure for the analysis of module and system long-term stability using performance monitoring data of systems. For PV systems with standard c-Si modules, calculated rates of change in the initial ~5-7 years are statistically insignificant. Although this gives confidence about the fairly good long-term stability of c-Si modules, longer monitoring durations may be needed in order to address degradation rates by monitoring data analysis. Concerning PV performances more generally, today´s high Performance Ratio is proof that solar PV has matured into both a highly reliable and well-performing technology.