PV Evolution Labs adds drone inspection for U.S. solar sites via Quantified Energy Labs
PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) and Quantified Energy Labs Pte. Ltd. (QE-Labs) signed an exclusive agreement to provide drone inspection services in the U.S. solar market. PVEL will be the provider of QE-Labs’ autonomous drone electroluminescence (EL) imaging technology for conducting front-end field inspections. The back-end data processing will be handled by QE-Labs in Singapore.
EL imaging is an inspection method that can reveal defects and microcracks of solar cells inside a photovoltaic (PV) module. It is widely used as a tool for quality control in PV manufacturing. PVEL has done manual daytime EL testing for years, covering more than 2 GW of underperforming or damaged PV systems. Problem is, those manual efforts have limited tests to sampling due to inherent speed and cost limitations.
With QE-Labs in the mix, PVEL’s field testing services will greatly expand and be able to handle faster inspections of large-scale solar assets.
“With established success in our home market, we are ready to deploy our autonomous drone solution in more regional markets to support the growth of the global PV industry. This collaboration with PVEL is QE-Labs’ first step towards global expansion based on our drone-enabled Data-as-a-Service business model,” said Dr. WANG Yan, CEO of QE-Labs.
The drone EL imaging services can assist with:
- Identification and evaluation for insurance and/or warranty claim for damaged and/or underperforming PV modules.
- Technical due diligence prior to PV asset transaction or leasing.
- Initial site-acceptance-testing (SAT) to exclude physically damaged PV modules caused by poor workmanship.
- Detection of early failures before the defect liability period (DLP) ends, including excessive light induced degraded (LID) PV modules.
- Annual PV module quality health checks to closely monitor up to 100% of the PV system.
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