At Intersolar North America TUV Rheinland PTL will present new, diverse testing and certification services to support investors and project management organizations at all stages of planning and operating large-scale PV power plants. The services are designed to help assure the quality of power plants to enhance their bankability and increase cost-efficiency.

"As the costs of PV modules and, therefore, system costs are falling, they result in lower cost per kilowatt at large-scale plants, creating an attractive market for investors," said Richard Bozicevich, Vice President of Business Development at TUV Rheinland PTL.

"To make the solar energy industry worthy of continuous investment, project planners and investors need to ensure profitable and safe long-term operation to the maximum extent possible."

TUV Rheinland's specialists, through decades of solar experience, have identified some of the greatest operational failure risks. To maximize the project success, TUV Rheinland supports investors and project partners with the following services:

+ selecting suitable components and modules;

+ testing module output performance to verify the output forecast and nameplate ratings;

+ performing site evaluation;

+ evaluating plausibility of the plant design;

+ assisting during the proposal phase;

+ ensuring quality of the installation;

+ approving plant safety; and

+ validating technical specifications and supervising plant construction.

The company also conducts system monitoring, combined with output verification and regular inspections of the plant during operation.

TUV Rheinland has been using these services successfully to assist a number of large-scale power plants throughout the world. These include power plants with an output ranging from 500 kW to 100 MW in China, Germany, France, India, Italy, North America, Portugal, Spain and South Korea.