|
|
Solar ABCs Newsletter
|
September 2008
|
|
|
Upcoming Stakeholder Meetings
|
September 24-25
US Technical Advisory Group to IEC (Scottsdale, AZ)
September 24-25
Building Electrical Codes Panel (Albuquerque, NM)
October 17
Solar ABCs Stakeholder Meeting
(San Diego)
Click on link to see full agenda for each meeting and to register. Space for each meeting is limited.
|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to the September newsletter for the Solar America Board for Codes
and Standards (Solar ABCs). In this newsletter you will learn about
several upcoming stakeholder meetings including a PV Stakeholder Meeting following the Solar Power International Conference next month in San Diego. Register today to attend any of these meetings. If you want to play an active role in discussion, debate, and the preparation of position statements and policies, you may sign up to become an active member
of one or more panels. The Solar ABCs is organized into five different
panels with each having responsibility for different topics related to
specific codes or standards. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future newsletters or any other comments for Solar ABCs.
Sincerely,  Larry Sherwood
Project Administrator
Solar ABCs
|
|
Solar ABCs to hold Stakeholder Meeting at Solar Power International
The Solar ABCs will hold a Photovoltaic Stakeholder Meeting on Friday morning, October 17, immediately after the conclusion of this year's Solar Power International Conference.
At the meeting on October 17, Stakeholders will learn about first year results and recommendations from Solar ABCs and discuss current hot topics in solar codes and standards. The topics discussed will include fire safety code and standard issues, proposals for changes to the National Electrical Code, grounding issues, PV cell performance recommendations, interconnection, net metering, and solar access laws. Click here for a complete agenda.
The meeting will last from 8:00 am - 12:30 pm and will take place at the San Diego Convention Center. Click here to see the draft agenda and to register.
|
US TAG to Meet in Arizona
The
US Technical Advisory Group (USTAG) for International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) Technical Committee 82 Solar Photovoltaic Energy
System (TC82) will meet September 24-25, 2008 in Scottsdale, AZ. The
TC82 US TAG acts on behalf of the IEC US National Committee as the
review body for documents and proposals from IEC TC 82. During the
meeting the TAG will review a number of documents circulated by IEC for
comment or vote to establish a US position on these documents. The
Scope of TC82 is "to prepare international standards for systems of
photovoltaic conversion of solar energy into electrical energy and for
all the elements in the entire photovoltaic energy system."
The meeting will be held at the Arizona State University SkySong facility in Scottsdale (1475 N. Scottsdale Road). Click here to register and for the draft agenda and more details. Please register by September 17. |
Building Electrical Codes Panel to Review NEC Proposals
The
Building Electrical Codes Panel will hold a Stakeholder Meeting on
September 24-25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico to discuss the the latest
draft proposals for the 2011
National Electrical Code and consider new proposals.
Click here to
view the 5th Draft of proposals for the 2011 National Electrical
Code. These proposals will be refined based on Forum input and other
proposals will be added. Revised drafts will be circulated as warranted
by input.
The September 24-25 meeing will be held on Eubank Ave, near Sandia National Labs/Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM. Contact Ron Donaghe to register for the meeting.
|
UL to Test How Modules Affect Roofing Material Fire Class Ratings
As part of its work under the Solar ABCs, UL will run simulations and tests to determine if and how traditional PV modules affect roofing material fire class ratings and to then define the UL evaluation process, requirements and test method. The plan for these tests will be sent to all Solar ABCs Stakeholders in September. Stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide comments on the plan. Click here for more background on this topic.
|
Accelerated Aging Workshop Report
In April, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored the Accelerated Aging Testing & Reliability Workshop in Photovoltaics II. The workshop resulted in the following 5 major themes, and the final report is now available:
- There is no single definition of failure or of reliability, and definitions vary with application and customer (residential, commercial, utility), industry segment (integrators, manufacturers, financiers, etc.) and PV types.
- Industry needs access to data on reliability of fielded systems including failure mechanisms; the data must be protected from disclosure and potential misuse that could harm individual companies.
- Industry needs analyses of fielded systems, reliability and accelerated aging test results to create and validate predictive models that can be relied upon to produce reasonable correlations between accelerated aging test results and the field life of components and systems.
- Arcing and other safety-related failures are a high priority because of the rapidly expanding number of installed systems and the potential damage to the industry's reputation if failures result in injury or death to installers, operators or customers.
- Industry needs and desires improvements in existing tests, more information on best practices for reliability and accelerated aging tests, and improved and expanded applications of the information derived from reliability and accelerated aging tests and analysis.
|
|
|
|
|
