Intertek acquires PV inspection provider AePVI
Intertek has expanded its qauality assurance offering for the solar industry with the acquisition of Aerial PV Inspection GmbH (AePVI), which provides high-speed technology-powered inspection and diagnostic solutions for solar PV systems.
As the fastest growing form of renewable energy, the global solar market is undergoing rapid expansion, driven by accelerating investment in PV projects and rising demand for fast‑paced quality assurance solutions which enable zero defects.
Often caused by weather, shipping or incidents during manufacturing, installation and operations, PV module damage and defects impact asset performance, reliability and long-term energy yield. AePVI helps clients to overcome these challenges through drone and ground-based technologies that deliver high-speed, high‑precision inspection for large solar PV systems. This combination of technologies and proprietary digital software positions AePVI to capitalize on the solar industry’s structural growth drivers, having already established itself in the European solar market from its base in Germany.
AePVI will be integrated into the Intertek CEA business line, complementing its end-to-end quality assurance services for the solar industry by expanding the scope of services offered in factory-to-field assurance through enhanced high-speed drone and ground-based data collection, analysis and comparison across the asset life cycle.
Gaining speed in solar PV inspection
With this technology, Intertek CEA will be able to accelerate its ability to inspect large solar farms, enabling improved customer service, increased productivity and enhanced capacity.
“The silicon wafers inside solar modules are fragile, making them susceptible to damage which is impossible to detect with the naked eye,” says Sunny Rai, Intertek president electrical, connected world and transportation technologies.
A drone-mounted inspection system flies over a solar array as part of AePVI’s high-speed data collection workflow, technology that will integrate into Intertek CEA to expand factory-to-field quality assurance for PV assets.
Ground-based AePVI inspection equipment captures high-precision performance and defect data on a utility-scale solar site, supporting Intertek CEA’s expanded capability to detect module damage and improve long-term energy yield.
