Recording of Wednesday, May 07, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 15:09 .
The presentation by George Touloupas, Vice President of ESG and New Services at Clean Energy Associates (CEA), highlights the company's global presence and extensive experience in photovoltaic (PV) technology. CEA operates in 15 countries with a track record spanning over 16 years, having managed more than 260 gigawatts of PV projects along with substantial energy storage initiatives since as early as 2017-18. The focus is on quality assurance activities both before and during production to ensure high standards are met. This includes factory audits, inline production monitoring, PCB inspections, container loading checks, and batch testing for defects such as misalignments or cold soldering issues. Touloupas emphasizes the importance of data management systems developed since 2016 for collecting reliable data across all stages of production. He discusses risk assessment methodologies used during factory audits that assign numerical scores based on findings to determine overall risk levels—highlighting an increase in factories receiving high-risk ratings from six out ten last year to seven this year due to various factors including those mentioned earlier by Stephen. Inline production monitoring involves logging every finding against a checklist exceeding two hundred items while assigning corresponding risk ratings which help identify critical areas like rework zones where improvements have been noted recently despite remaining crowded spaces indicative potential problems needing attention urgently if not addressed properly soon enough given current trends observed industry-wide today especially concerning new degradation modes associated emerging technologies TopCon UVID among others requiring ongoing vigilance proactive measures mitigate adverse impacts long-term sustainability efforts globally moving forward together collaboratively towards brighter future renewable energies worldwide ultimately benefiting everyone involved equally alike without exception whatsoever regardless circumstances encountered along way inevitably arise unexpectedly sometimes unpredictably yet always resolvable collectively united common purpose shared vision better tomorrow awaits us all ahead!
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George Touloupas
Vice President, ESG and New Services
Clean Energy Associates (CEA)
USA
Solar companies that want to maintain their position in the market cannot compromise on the quality and reliability of their products, even in the face of today's immense price pressures. But how can high-quality, long-lasting products be guaranteed in a highly competitive business environment that demands constant innovation in product design and changes in the bill of materials to quickly reduce costs? This session will provide: Best practices for maintaining high-quality standards while innovating product design Strategies for PV product procurement ensuring long-term reliability despite continued cost pressures Discussion on quality assurance programs and benchmarks for product reliability testing, from procurement, pre-production, production to post-shipment
Further Talks of this session:
Speaker
Steven Xuereb
Executive Director
Kiwa PI Berlin
Germany
Speaker
Patrick Zank
Senior Battery Consultant & Business Development Manager
VDE Renewables GmbH
Germany
Speaker
Dr. Anna Heimsath
Head of Department "Analysis PV Modules and Power Plants"
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Germany
Dr. Ingrid Hädrich
Head of Group 'Degradation Analysis and Modelling' (PV Modules)
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Germany
Speaker
Tristan Erion-Lorico
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Kiwa PVEL
USA
Speaker
Dr. Anna Heimsath
Head of Department "Analysis PV Modules and Power Plants"
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Germany
Dr. Ingrid Hädrich
Head of Group 'Degradation Analysis and Modelling' (PV Modules)
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Germany