Installation

Driving quality and performance of PV systems through best practices

The ultimate goal of the industry is for PV to reach parity with traditional forms of electricity. In developing industry-wide installation standards, SolarTech helps to support this goal by identifying best practices that help reduce installation costs.

A key area where standardization of methods can help is in reduction of compliance costs. A reduction in the incidence of rejections by building inspectors will reduce the overall costs of installation, as well as the uncertainty in estimating labor and administrative costs. Read more

Committee Goal: Reduce installation time by 20% by 2011; resulting in $.50/W saved in reduced fees.

Projects

Installation checklist
Solar panel connector standard

Solartech Participants: SolarTech member companies including contractors and system integrators, balance of system (BOS) manufacturers and city building inspectors are collaborating to establish best practices guides and checklists to streamline the inspection process. Further work in BOS product standardization in underway.

Member Companies: