Recording of Monday, June 22, 2026 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2026 | Language: English | Duration: 10:05 .

Comprehensive Overview of Solar Powered Europe's Quality Initiatives

Nikoletta Fodor leads the quality initiative at Solar Powered Europe, the principal association for the solar and storage sector in Europe, with over 300 members and 45 national associations based in Brussels. The organization impacts decision-making and promotes collaboration among stakeholders across the solar value chain, focusing on themes like digitalization, global markets, and quality management. Recent reports provide industry best practices, emphasizing the collaborative effort in developing these guidelines. SolarPower Europe prioritizes enhancing industry sustainability and growth by addressing key topics and advocating for innovation in solar technologies. The EU Commission aims for 750 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2030, necessitating a strong focus on quality to mitigate trust issues and meet ambitious targets, as highlighted by a case study revealing serious defects in 30% of utility-scale PV plants. The financial impact of quality issues can be severe, with estimates exceeding 2 million euros for larger installations, necessitating ongoing dialogue and evaluation of existing quality frameworks. SolarPower Europe is actively working on improving installation standards and initiating a verification scheme to standardize best practices in the industry while encouraging participation from companies to enhance engineering and procurement processes.

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Speaker

Nikoletta Fodor
Project Officer
SolarPower Europe
Belgium

Talk of session: Solar Power Plants and Storage II: Ensuring Performance - Quality, Reliability and Bankability of Modules and BOS Components in a Competitive Environment

As technology advances rapidly and price pressure increases, ensuring performance throughout the asset's lifecycle is paramount, especially as storage gains importance in new solar plants. From factory audits to field inspections - tailored quality strategies are essential for reducing risk and making operation profitable. This session examines inspection frameworks, technology testing and advanced fault detection in order to enhance reliability and strengthen the bankability and profitability of PV-plus storage projects.

Key topics:

• Quality assurance and certification for modules, balance of systems and batteries
• Failure modes and degradation risks
• Impacts on yield and lifecycle costs
• Best practices to secure long-term reliability and bankability

Further Talks of this session:

Welcome and Introduction

Speaker

George Touloupas
Head of Procurement Quality and Localization
Scatec

To Talk

A Decision Framework for Solar Asset Inspection From Factory to Field

Speaker

Jörg Althaus
Director QA and Engineering Services
Intertek CEA
Germany

To Talk

Exploring the Rise of PV Module Failures and Their Potential Causes

Speaker

Sishir Garemella
Head of International Business Development
Kiwa PVEL
USA

To Talk

Advanced PV Fault Detection: Faster, Smarter, Cost-Efficient

Speaker

Magnus Herz
Senior Expert PV
TÜV Rheinland Energy GmbH
Germany

To Talk

Behind Warranty Claims: An Insurance Perspective on Product & Performance Warranties

Speaker

Julia Moser
Product Lead Photovoltaics
Munich RE
Germany

To Talk

Q&A

To Talk