Stakeholders discuss technical standards for solar PV systems |31 March 2016

Local photovoltaic (PV) suppliers and other stakeholders took part in a workshop yesterday on technical standards for solar PV systems.

The forum, held at Care House, was jointly organised by the GOS-UNDP-GEF PV project and the Seychelles Energy Commission (Sec).

The main purpose of this workshop was to adapt the objective of the PV project’s component which focuses on the strengthening of policy, legal frameworks adopted to promote renewable energy technologies and enable grid connected renewable energy production.

The establishment of these technical standards and specifications is an activity under the GOS-UNDP-GEF PV project, which is a US $1.2 million project aimed at increasing the use of rooftop grid connected solar PV systems in Seychelles.

In her opening remarks, principal officer for renewable energy and energy management (Reem) of Sec, Cynthia Alexander, said in regards to renewable energy technologies, solar power is the easily accessible source for Seychelles  and this project concentrates more on grid connected rooftop PV systems.

“Can you imagine what could possibly happen if there is no standards? Products might not work as expected, products may not be of same quality, products may not be compatible with other equipment and in extreme cases, products might pose a danger,” she said.

Mrs Alexander also noted a few benefits of the standards.

“It will raise the consumers trust on the product and its safety, increase sales of products by being reliable, provide ways to improve new technologies by managing environmental and social risks, support the government policies and regulations, whereby the users’ and businesses’ interests are protected, open up market access, provide economies of scale and encourage innovation, increase the awareness of technical developments, and most importantly provide greater variety of accessible products to consumers,” she said.

The technical standards are developed with an objective to have common criteria, guidelines; methods to control and compare any PV related process and products that includes the equipment, its components and method of operations. 

International standards play an important role in the PV industry, since it is critical that PV products must be measured and qualified the same way all over the world.

The standards that were presented have been adopted from existing international standards which select technologies that will be best suited for the country’s geographical and climatic situations.

These standards will be reviewed every year and updated based on the need for increasing PV yield and also the reduction of cost per watt.

The presentations were led by the principal officer for engineering and technical affairs of Sec Ralph Vel, project manager PV project of programme coordination unit (PCU) ElkeTalma.

Present during the deliberations was the chief executive of Sec Tony Imaduwa, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy (MFTBE), Ministry of Land Use and Housing (MLUH), Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC), Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS), Seychelles Institute of Technology (Sit), Fair Trading Commission (FTC), Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC), Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), PV suppliers and installers.