Enertis Applus+ provided quality control services for Voltalia’s Serra do Mel solar PV plant in Brazil

Enertis Applus+, a global consulting, engineering and quality control firm, expert in the renewable energy and storage sectors, performed quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) inspections on the solar photovoltaic modules and on other main equipment of the 260 MW Serra do Mel solar PV plant. This project, located between the municipalities of Areia Branca and Serra do Mel, in Brazil, is part of the Serra Branca cluster, a hybrid complex developed entirely by Voltalia comprising six wind farms in operation with the potential to reach up to 2.4 GW, making it the largest in the world.

Enertis Applus+ assisted Voltalia providing its specialised and independent advice during the pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, and pre-shipment phases. As part of the services that were performed, the company carried out vendor surveillance, namely factory inspections, in China to oversee and evaluate the raw materials for solar PV modules. Also, Enertis Applus+ assessed the compliance of the manufacturing process with the established quality standards and its experienced quality inspectors supervised the entire manufacturing process in China. The services also included pre-shipment factory acceptance tests (FAT).

Enertis Applus+ also performed additional and specific tests on the modules in its accredited external laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17020 and CBTL/IECEE), including the determination of the maximum power under standard conditions, visual, EL, Light Induced Degradation (LID), Potential Induced Degradation (PID) and the Light and Elevated Temperature Induced Degradation Index (LeTID) tests. These tasks are necessary to evaluate the quality and optimal performance of the modules. Similarly, specific tests were carried out on inverters and solar trackers to verify their compliance with predefined technical requirements.

In words of Dr. Vicente Parra, Head of Quality and Technology at Enertis Applus+: “The solar PV industry is currently booming in Brazil, and we are proud to put our global expertise and technical knowledge on quality control at Voltalia’s service for its Serra do Mel plant. This new project is part of the close and successful collaboration that we have maintained with Voltalia over the past years to make sure that their solar PV projects worldwide meet the highest quality standards, a key element to ensure their long-term performance”.

This new collaboration is an example of the growing activity of Enertis Applus+ in Brazil, a market where, over the past two years, the company has been providing independent engineering, consulting, testing, and quality control services to the key industry players active in the area. With the support of Applus+ local structure, Enertis Applus+ is increasingly expanding its activity in Brazil.