Executives at companies that inspect Chinese factories on behalf of
developers and financiers said that over the last 18 months they have
found that even the most reputable companies are substituting cheaper,
untested materials. Other brand-name manufacturers, they said, have shut
down production lines and subcontracted the assembly of modules to
smaller makers.
“We have inspectors in a lot of factories, and it’s not rare to see some
big brands being produced in those smaller workshops where they have no
control over quality,” said Thibaut Lemoine, general manager of STS Certified,
a French-owned testing service. When STS evaluated 215,000 photovoltaic
modules at its Shanghai laboratory in 2011 and 2012, it found the
defect rate had jumped from 7.8 percent to 13 percent.
In one case, an entire batch of modules from one brand-name manufacturer
listed on the New York Stock Exchange proved defective, Mr. Lemoine
said. He declined to identify the manufacturer, citing confidentiality
agreements.
“Based on our testing, some manufacturers are absolutely swapping in
cheap Chinese materials to save money,” Jenya Meydbray, chief executive
of PV Evolution Labs, a Berkeley, Calif., testing service.
SolarBuyer, a
company based in Marlborough, Mass., discovered defect rates of 5.5
percent to 22 percent during audits of 50 Chinese factories over the
last 18 months, said Ian Gregory, the company’s senior marketing
director.
Some Chinese manufacturers acknowledge that quality has become a problem
“There are a lot of shortcuts being taken, and unfortunately it’s by
some of the more reputable companies and there’s also been lot of new
companies starting up in recent years without the same standards we’ve
had at Suntech,” said Stuart Wenham, the chief technology officer of
Suntech, which is based in Jiangsu Province in eastern China.
When asked about quality standards, Trina Solar,
one of the largest Chinese manufacturers, said in an e-mailed response,
“For Trina, quality will not be compromised in our cost-reduction
efforts.”
The heart of a solar panel is a photovoltaic cell that generates
electricity when struck by sunlight. Among the most critical components
are a thin film that protects the cell from moisture, and the
encapsulant that seals the cell between layers of glass.
Mr. Gregory said repeat inspections of factories found some
manufacturers had been constantly switching to cheaper materials,
including some whose use-by date had expired.
“If the materials aren’t good or haven’t been thoroughly tested, they
won’t stick together and the solar module will eventually fall apart in
the field,” he said.
That’s what happened in 2011 at a year-old Australian solar plant, Mr.
Meydbray of PV Evolution said. Testing confirmed that substandard
materials were causing the Chinese-made modules’ protective coating to
degrade, he said. The power plant operator declined to be identified.
“I think quality is increasingly a concern, but it’s not a major issue yet,” said Rhone Resch, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. “As companies race to cut their costs, some who are on the edge may take short cuts.”
The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
has studied the performance of solar panels up to 2010, according to
Sarah Kurtz, a scientist who manages the laboratory’s photovoltaic
reliability group.
“The question is whether things are deteriorating rapidly or whether
it’s a few isolated companies not doing so well on their quality
control,” she said. “I hear a lot of angst, but I haven’t seen a lot of
solid information.”
All solar panels degrade and gradually generate less electricity over
time. But a review of 30,000 installations in Europe by the German solar
monitoring firm Meteocontrol found 80 percent were underperforming. Testing of six manufacturers’ solar panels at two Spanish power plants by Enertis Solar in 2010 found defect rates as high as 34.5 percent.
Enfinity
operates solar installations in Europe and the United States. Bob
Hopper, Enfinity’s chief development officer, said his company had
stopped buying Chinese modules because of quality concerns. “Even a
small amount of unforecasted degradation in electricity production can
have significant economic impact on us,” he said.
In the Netherlands, René Moerman, chief strategy officer of Solar Insurance and Finance,
said claims had risen 15 percent recently. He said an inspection of a
solar plant in Britain in March revealed that 12 percent of the newly
installed Chinese-made modules had failed. He said confidentiality
agreements prevented him from naming the manufacturer.
Other solar developers and installers said they had not experienced quality problems.
“The systems we installed in 2012 had the best performing year yet,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, the largest residential solar installer in the United States and a buyer of panels from China’s Yingli Solar and Trina.
Non-Chinese manufacturers have had quality problems as well. The
defective panels installed on the Los Angeles area warehouse, for
instance, were made by an American manufacturer. A reporter was granted
access to the project on the condition that the parties’ identities not
be disclosed because of a confidential legal settlement.
First Solar, one of the United States’ biggest manufacturers, has set aside $271.2 million to cover the costs of replacing defective modules it made in 2008 and 2009.
Nor are all solar developers shunning Chinese manufacturers. The United
States subsidiary of Yingli, the world’s largest solar panel maker since
2012, won a contract last year to supply solar panels for a California
power plant.
“The one thing I can tell you is that Yingli does not cut corners,” said
Brian Grenko, vice president for operations at Yingli Americas, adding
that only 15 defective modules had been returned to the company out of
2.8 million shipped to the United States since 2009.
Still, Yingli executives acknowledge that quality has become a competitive issue.
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