Overall objective

The objective of the current Task 3 programme is to contribute to the cost reduction of systems through collaborative activities focused on technical issues, divided into the following two main categories:

1. Subtask 1: Quality assurance: quality assurance schemes for improved reliability and lower global life cycle costs.
2. Subtask 2: Technical issues: technical recommendations for the cost reduction of systems

The main targets are technical groups such as:

• Project developers
• System designers
• Industrial manufacturers
• Installers
• Utilities
• QA organizations
• End users

The method of work consists of a practical approach through identification, selection, and observation of case studies. After the analysis of the collected data, a collaborative work programme will be developed to make recommendations. In relation to the large range of stand-alone PV applications, it is necessary to take into account systems operating in industrialized and southern countries.
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Subtask 1: Quality assurance

• Activity 11: Critical Review of Implementation of Quality Assurance Schemes
  • Objective
    All phases in the life cycle of stand-alone PV systems must be considered as potential sources of failure to ensure the good management of the quality of installed systems. To provide both end-users and programme managers with guidance for the quality assurance of systems, projects and programmes, participants share their experience on methodological and practical aspects concerning quality assurance.
    For this topic, participants aim to develop quality assurance schemes that will lead to a warranty of service for the end user at reasonable costs (that means as low as possible).

  • Major Activities in 2002
    The results of the survey undertaken in 2000 form the basis for a document, which is available on the Task 3 website. Following this action, Task 3 participants completed this first basis on current guidelines as developed in their respective countries.

• Activity 12 : Technical Aspects of Performance Assessment on Field
  • Objective
    Implementation of Quality Assurance procedures is often difficult in the field, particularly when the procedures are too complicated or otherwise inappropriate. This is especially the case when considering the installation, operation and maintenance phases.
    In addition, the performance assessment of installed stand-alone PV systems depends on both technical and non-technical criteria, such as economic and social criteria.
    Even when methodological and conceptual aspects of the performance assessment have been implemented, realistic methods and concrete supports must be recommended for use in the field and laboratory.

  • Major Activities in 2002 and Foreseen Activities in 2003
    The aim is to provide new project managers with realistic and efficient recommendations, based on Task 3 experience, concerning management of the quality of SAPV systems. The main objective is to make potential actors aware that there is more attention to give to the management of the quality of a system than simply to manage a good design ; a lot of effort must be implemented in each step of a project.
    A final document “Management of the Quality in SAPV Systems” including a collection of quality management data as observed in the field was prepared in 2002 and will be published in 2003. In this report are introduced real practices and both success and failure stories, collected through feed back from case studies.

Subtask 2: Technical issues

• Activity 21: Hybrid Systems
  • Objective
    This subtask aims to be a technical contribution to cost reduction through standardization and modularity in order to facilitate large-scale dissemination of PV Hybrid systems.

  

• Activity 22: Storage
  • Objective
    This subtask aims to be a technical contribution to cost reduction of the storage function in PV and PV Hybrid systems by decreasing investment costs and increasing performance (capacity, lifetime,...) through design, selection procedures of storage systems, and energy management recommendations.
    One of the main objectives of this activity is to show that there should be a correlation between the type of batteries and the type of application and to recommend, in a situation of call for tender, how to specify the best battery for a given application.

  • Major Activities in 2002
    A technical work programme was undertaken concerning test of batteries to be used in SAPV systems. The main objectives are to:
    • Provide project managers of photovoltaic applications with data to assist in battery selection and to help professionals involved in the design of PV systems;
    • Focus the activities of laboratories involved in the design of PV systems;
    • Make more battery test data available.
    The Final result is the Report IEA PVPS T3-11: 2002 Testing of Batteries used in SAPV Systems.
    The objective of another activity is to gather information of possible alternatives to lead-acid batteries for short, middle and long term storage (main performance, field of applications, estimated costs).
    Some Task 3 participants are involved in a European project whose aim is to build a state of the art from the existing and innovative technologies in the context of renewable energies.

  • Deliverables under preparation
    Collaborative work was developed to assess various strategies regulation. A document untitled “Management of batteries used in SAPV systems” will be published in 2003. The purpose is first to describe the main characteristics and possibilities of the most frequently used type of battery management. Then, the innovative character of the document is the presentation of new management methods that are intended to offer a better and more precise management.

  • Major Activities in 2002
    Guidelines were prepared to assist people with a limited background in this industry to navigate through the mine field of market hype and misinformation to determine for themselves, a system configuration that approximates their specific needs. The choice of a system to service specific needs is complicated. In the first place, no two applications are identical while in the second there is a large range of available system architectures from which to choose. When the lack of broad community experience with the relevant technologies, and the immature nature of the supporting industry to the situation are added, the need for a simple set of Guidelines to help prospective users to choose or identify the technologies that might be appropriate for their situation becomes obvious.
    The final result is the Report IEA PVPS T3-12: 2002 “Guidelines for selecting SAPV Systems.” Its objective is to provide a facility that assists prospective users of PV, to identify the system configuration that reflects the best commercial practice for their application.
    On the other hand, to address the current work plan, Task 3 needed to be able to analyze the performance of case studies to determine what comprises a successful, or conversely, an unsuccessful installation.
    This requires a monitoring process conducive to equitable comparison of system performance. In this way, the activity of experts was to prepare proposals for performance indicators of SAPV systems and monitoring guidelines, setting out how to equitably monitor system performance for a range of SAPV system.
    The current work is to produce “Guidelines for performance assessment of SAPV systems.” The objectives of this cooperative work are:
    • To prescribe a process that, if followed, will reassure investors, project managers, performance auditors, equipment manufacturers, and servicing firms, that the performance data they use are robust, equitable and representative;
    • Underpin a case study record that provides prospective PV users with relevant, comparative information about PV technology and its applications;
    • In conjunction with the above, establish a more qualitative set of performance indicators that will enable the layperson to shortcut the scientific approach to performance assessment.

  • Deliverables Under Preparation
    Another technical report entitled “Guidelines for Monitoring Equipment and Protocols for SAPV Systems,” is under preparation and will be published in 2003.

• Activity 23: Load / Appliances: Load Management and New Applications
  • Objective
    This subtask aims to be a technical contribution to cost reduction by showing the cost efficiency of a "good" load management strategy and well adapted appliances designed for low energy power systems. This subtask is an integrating issue which calls for inputs from the other technical issues (2.1 and 2.2) but also from economic and possibly social analysis coming from Task 9, in order to be able to install a PV system that is not only technically good but also credible and well accepted by the end user. The goal is also to propose design recommendations for very dedicated applications of PV systems.

    

  • Major Activities in 2002
    A survey of main recurrent technical difficulties with DC and AC appliances as seen in the field was achieved. The final result is the Report IEA  PVPS T3-09: 2002 Use of Appliances in SAPV Systems: Problems and Solutions. This survey considers some of the poor compliances of the technical characteristics of DC and AC appliances with the power and energy management design of a stand-alone PV system. The cooperative work is to share experience by collecting many examples (of difficulties experienced and adopted solutions) as really seen in the field, that could be used as a reference by designers, installers and operators to prevent problems on existing or future systems.
    Another activity has been continued relative to the Demand Side Management (DSM). DSM for Renewable Energy Systems involves the change of consumers energy use habits not only by using high efficiency appliances, decreasing the peak of the load curve, but also by using energy in a way that the load is well matched with the renewable source. This is different from classic DSM methodologies where the objective is essentially to have more or less a flat load curve by smoothing daily peaks and valleys of shifting energy-use to off-peak hours.

  • Deliverable under Preparation
    A technical report relative to “Demand Side Management in SAPV Systems” will be ready in 2003. The goal is to propose a relevant methodology for SAPV systems to implement DSM.

Other activities

• In collaboration with the NEDO, participation in a Workshop held in Kyoto, September 2002: “Activity and prospect of the Stand Alone PV generation systems”;
• Participation in the “XI Congresso Ibérico e VI Congresso Ibero-Americano de Energia Solar”, September 2002, Portugal. Foreseen Activities in 2003
• Task 3 Workshop for Dissemination of Results of the Present Programme, March 2003, Switzerland;
• Participation to the ISES Solar World Congress, June 2003, Sweden;
• Contribution to a Workshop on Hybrid Systems, September 2003, Germany.

Key deliverables

• Reports 2002:
  • Report IEA  PVPS T3-09: 2002: Use of appliances in SAPV systems: problems and solutions.
  • Report IEA  PVPS T3-10: 2002: Management of batteries used in SAPV systems.
  • Report IEA  PVPS T3-11: 2002: Testing of batteries used in SAPV systems.
  • Report IEA  PVPS T3-12: 2002: Guidelines for selecting SAPV systems.

• Reports to be published in 2003
  The following reports will be submitted to the Executive Committee:
  • Report IEA PVPS T3-13: 2003: Guidelines for performance assessment of SAPV systems.
  • Report IEA PVPS T3-14: 2003: Guidelines for monitoring equipment and protocols for SAPV systems.
  • Report IEA PVPS T3-15: 2003: Management of the quality in SAPV systems.

Task 3 participants

Meeting schedule

• Meetings Held in 2002
  • 20th Task 3 Experts Meeting, March 2002, Spain.
  • 21th Task 3 Experts Meeting, September 2002, Japan.

• Meetings Planned in 2003
  • 22th Task 3 Experts Meeting, March 2003, Switzerland.
  • 23th Task 3 Experts Meeting, September 2003, Germany.