Reported by Jeanny H. Lim

How the recent quake and nuclear crisis in Japan will change the dynamics of the solar market in the coming year, do you think?

I believe the incident in Japan will lead to rethinking of the nuclear energy and give a boost to the renewables.  

Germany has been very careful about nuclear energy for a long time. The opponents of the nuclear energy in Germany are very aggressive and pinpointing that nuclear is never a safe energy source. Germany has been putting a lot of research and development efforts into renewable energy and that’s why Germany is one of the leading countries in renewable energy. This is also why TUV Rheinland is attached to renewables. We were involved in photovotaic module performance testing 30 years ago and we have 80% of the global market in photovoltaics.

Where do you put your focus this year, in terms of business and technology development?

We are working in many areas and have a broad portfolio. However, our focus has been on the renewables always and we’ll stay with photovoltaics to keep our market share there.

We recently achieved a certification that will enable us to access the U.S. market. TUV Rheinland was approved by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to provide certification for ANSI/UL1703, the required North American solar safety mark. The accreditation is the latest in TUV Rheinland’s comprehensive portfolio of testing and photovoltaic certifications to help clients penetrate the global marketplace. We can, now, provide our customers one-stop shopping for both the European and North American markets. This is one big achievement, which will also benefit our Korean clients.

In Korea, we will develop more clients and be more present in the market. We are cooperating with Yeungnam University to open a photovoltaic test laboratory to provide local testing for our Korean clients.

We are also looking into wind energy, which is upcoming. There will be a big offshore wind field, which is under preparation in Korea. I heard that the wind condition is not favorable in Korea, but Korea is focusing on the export market.     

Away from the activities in renewable energy, we are very strong in the telecommunications industry in Korea. We are providing testing for the devices including smart phones and gadets like Galaxy Tab, an Android-based mobile phone and compact tablet computer produced by Samsung in Korea. This is a very dynamic market with a lot of developments made every year. We are involved in testing those devices for both bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

What’s your perspective on the Asian solar market this year? What are the market drivers and inhibitors, do you think?

I guess more and more Asian countries will consider using renewables and gear up for more installations. In Korea, shift in support programs is underway: the existing feed-in tariff will be replaced with a Renewable Portfolio System (RPS) scheme.

In Japan, after what happened in Fukushima, the trend will go more for renewable energy.

What are your expectations for the development of the cell and module market in the coming years?

I believe the market will be further growing due to many factors including the incident in Japan because the governments around the world will put more focus on renewable energy. That’s a good sign for all PV manufacturers. At the moment, a lot of efforts are put in making modules more efficient and reducing the price. There are ongoing developments in reducing the price of modules and this is possible with new technologies such as thin films.

Then, what is TUV Rheinland doing in that regard?

We are, of course, going with the industry trend. We have developed new testing methods for new technologies. We’ve recently invented one testing technology called ‘Long-Term Sequential Testing’, which is conducted under harsh conditions and long-term testing procedures. The Long-Term Sequential Testing is helping module manufacturers better understand how their modules may behave after being used for a longer period and provide their residential and large-scale customers confidence in their solar investment. The testing simulates possible and unavoidable long-term operational conditions a solar module could experience throughout their lifetime. These tests are designed to more accurate approximate real outdoor solar module behavior.

Jeanny H. Lim is Editor-in-Chief of InterPV. Send your comments to swied@infothe.com.

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