scope:

This document is designed to be used as a guide to visually inspect front-contact polycrystalline and mono-crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for major defects (less common types of PV modules such as back-contact silicon cells or thin film technologies are not covered herein). The modules under consideration may be of any size or rated power, however some specific use-cases for solar modules may have different requirements and therefore adaption of this document is application and institution dependent (ex. labelling may not be present for a solar module sold as part of a small off-grid lighting kit). This document is meant to supplement and support rather than replace international testing standards (for example IEC 61215 or UL 1703 [1], [2]). A lack of visually observable defects is necessary but not sufficient to determine if a module would pass IEC 61215 testing.

Several applications could be envisioned for this document, including use by:

• border agents to inspect product shipments at ports of entry to a country. Standardized rejection criteria could be used as grounds for barring defective products for import in conjunction with an adopted IEC standard such as IEC 61215;

• standards agencies or regulatory authorities in search and seizure efforts. A tool that can be used onsite to determine if defective or fraudulent products are found for sale in markets;

• retailers/distributors to ensure they are receiving acceptable quality products from manufacturers;

• installers/technicians when selecting product from retailers or distributors for customers;

• educators as a teaching tool for students of solar energy, for example when training technicians;

• inspectors of already installed solar products to catalogue defects and attempt to troubleshoot failures.

However, as this guide deals primarily with new modules, alternative tools are recommended for this task (see for example [3]).