Technical Due Diligence for PV Projects

Do you want your power plant’s site, design components, O&M regime, commissioning process, or rated output to be verified? VDE can provide you with independent certification, along with technical advice to maintain standards.

PV module technology has made significant strides in the past years. This can be attributed to the large number of companies that entered the industry and invested in their R&D efforts. Another factor is the high amount of competition between players to improve module performance, which directly affects the bottom line of a PV System.

Overall system quality begins on the component level, and the VDE Renewables services are tailored to support technical bankability on both the component and system-wide level.

Why PV module testing and certification?

“VDE Seal” fulfills your PV modules’ market entry requirements into Europe and many other international locations
To demonstrate the safety and reliability of PV modules in operations
To minimize risks for both the manufacturer and end user
Neutral testing by a third party fulfills the market requirements

Our track record

Certifier for half of top 10 PV module manufacturers
Evaluated over 2.8 GW of PV modules for buyers

Working with VDE allows you to benefit from years of experience and ensure that critical aspects of your projects are reviewed efficiently, and on time.

By working with us, your project can receive the VDE quality mark, which signifies that your project has exceeded technical standards through a transparent evaluation. Your pursuit of high quality will be recognized by third parties as a result!

Have a look at our due diligence services below and see how they benefit you.

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We can support you across the following topics:

Project Agreements Review
Site Review
System Design & Major Equipment Review
Energy Production Estimate
Permits, Plans and Approvals
Financial Review
Construction Oversight + On-site Inspection
Project Acceptance Advisory + On-site Inspection
Procurement & Logistics
Operations & Maintenance
PV Power Plant Certification (Premium Option)

Case Study of VDE ‘s Utility Scale Projects Implementation

USD 7-digit losses after only 4 years of operations of 18MV PV plant - due to low quality

VDE Renewables was tasked to look at a 18 MW PV plant featuring central converters in the UK after performance of the system started declining after only 4 years of operations.

Inspection of the PV plant determined that the DC transmission cables were buried directly into the ground, but the cables were not rated for this type of application and started to fail. The remediation required 5km of trenches to be dug up and 66km of new and properly-specified cables to be put in place.

A key lesson learned by the plant owners was that a comprehensive assurance assessment (which includes cable-related checks) conducted before the project was commissioned. could have prevented the high remediation costs.

Comparing costs: The costs for cable replacement was about EUR 1.5 million. Only EUR 60k would have been required at an earlier stage of the project to avoid a cost of EUR 1.5 million after 4 years. However, even after 4 years the investment of EUR 1.5 million was a good investment to fix the plant as any more year of operations would have increased the losses for the plant owners.

VDE Renewables

> VDE Verlag

Technical Due Diligence for PV Projects

Why PV module testing and certification?

Our track record

Case Study of VDE ‘s Utility Scale Projects Implementation