(Source: New York Times - Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels by Todd Woody)

The solar panels covering the roof of a large warehouse in the Inland Empire, sunny region east of Los Angeles, have lasted only two years compared to the expected 25. The protective cover has disintegrated, while other defects have caused two fires which have destroyed the system for two years, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. And it is certainly not an isolated incident. Worldwide, laboratories, developers, capital providers and insurers report such a kind of problems. This industry of $ 77 billion is facing a "quality" crisis, while solar panels are now becoming common use. .

“Nobody knows how deep the problem is. When a defect is discovered, often confidentiality agreements keep secret the producers’ identity, making difficult to know who is responsible. . At stake there are billions of dollars used to finance the solar panels installation - from the plants in the desert to the city roofs - on the assumption that the same solar plants will pay back the investment for a quarter of a century. 

The concerns have arisen concurrently with the rise in the installation number. In the US, the Solar Energy Industries Association has announced that the energy generated by solar panels has increased from 83 megawatts in 2003 to 7,266 megawatts in 2012, enough to power 1.2 million homes. About half of this capacity concerns 2012, the “boom” year , during which also manufacturing defects massively came to light.

"We must face the reality, problems will be overcome," said Conrad Burke, general director at the DuPont's photovoltaic division, which provides materials to solar energy producers and earns billion of dollars. The developer Dissigno has encountered many problems on its panels, according to Dave Williams, CEO of the company based in San Francisco. "I do not want to alarm, but I believe that quality is a long-term threat," he said. "All the more so materials for modules change day by day, and manufacturers are reluctant to share this type of information."

Most of concerns about quality relates to China, home to the majority of solar panels manufacturers. After collecting billions of dollars in debt to boost production, bringing down the solar panels prices since 2009, Chinese companies are under pressure to cut costs. In March, banks have led to bankruptcy Suntech, until last year holding the world record for solar energy. 

The companies managers controlling the Chinese factories on behalf of developers and funders have reported that, over the last 18 months, have found out that even the most reliable companies use cheap untested materials. While other renowned manufacturers have shut down production lines and subcontracted the modules assembly to smaller companies. "We have inspectors in many factories and it is not unusual that big brands outsource to smaller laboratories where there is no quality control," said Thibaut Lemoine, general manager at the French STS-Certified. When STS evaluated 215 thousand photovoltaic modules in its labs in Shanghai in 2011 and in 2012, it was able to notice that defective ones have gone up from 7.8 to 13%.

In one case, even a whole batch of modules manufactured by a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange - whose name is protected by a confidentiality agreement - was defective. "Based on our testing, some manufacturers are using cheap Chinese materials to save money," said Jenya Meydbray, CEO of PV Evolution Labs, based in Berkeley, California. SolarBuyer - company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts - has analyzed fifty Chinese factories revealing a defect rate ranging from 5.5 to 22%, has said the marketing director Ian Gregory. The fact that quality is a problem is also agreed by certain Chinese manufacturers. " Many prefer shortcuts. This is true for companies which already have a certain authority and for new ones, in start up phase. It is unlikely that the same Suntech standards get adopted, " said Stuart Wenham, chief technology officer of the company based in Jiangsu province in eastern China. For its part, Trina Solar - one of the largest Chinese manufacturers - assures the New York Times that "quality is not compromised by efforts to cut costs." 

All solar panels are expected to deteriorate, over time resulting in less and less electricity. But according to the analysis from Meteocontrol, a German monitoring company, on 30 thousand installations in Europe, 80% appear underperforming. Bob Hopper, chief development officer at Enfinity, has announced that his company has stopped buying Chinese modules for quality problems. "Even the smallest accident can have a significant economic impact," he explained. In the Netherlands, René Moerman, chief strategy officer at Solar Insurance and Finance, said that complaints are increased by 15% over the last period.

In addition, in March the inspection of a solar system in the UK showed that 12% of the new installation Chinese-made modules was defective, but again the confidentiality agreements prevented him from revealing the manufacturer’s name. However there are also those who have not encountered any problems. For all Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, the largest solar panels installer in the United States, main customer of the Chinese Yingli Solar and Trina. "The systems installed in 2012 have recorded the best performance until now," he said. 

In general, quality issues not only affect Chinese companies. The defective panels installed on a wharehouse in Los Angeles had been produced in the U.S. First Solar, one of the largest U.S. manufacturers, has committed $ 271.2 million to cover the costs of replacing defective modules produced by its factories between 2008 and 2009. 

It must be said that not all shy away from Chinese manufacturers. The U.S. subsidiary of Yingli, the largest solar panels manufacturer in 2012, has obtained last year a supply contract for a power plant in California. The company now offers for its customers a comprehensive insurance policy and has established its own testing lab in the area of San Francisco. What above all counts, according to Wenham from Suntech, "is to start naming names." That is the only way to solve the quality problem. 

And here that comes into play Pvcompare.net, the online platform comparing the solar panels producers. The portal aims at shedding light on the broad landscape of photovoltaics, by helping end users in identifying the best companies and reporting those to avoid. To make known the quality of your products, the first step is to sign inPvcompare.net.