Company increases solar testing prowess

Aiming to meet what it says is a growing need for testing and certification of solar photovoltaic systems and components, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in July announced that it has expanded its Silicon Valley testing facilities.

With a 40 percent increase in capacity, the 32,000-square-foot lab, which first opened in 2008, is the largest of its kind in North America, capable of testing all elements of PV systems, including thin-film technologies, according to Northbrook, Ill.-based UL.

While UL is also expanding its testing capacity in China, Japan and Germany, there’s been a tremendous amount of interest from companies looking to supply solar products to the United States, says Jeffrey Smidt, general manager of UL’s global energy business. Since the U.S. has different certification standards for solar components there’s a need for additional testing of foreign-made products.

UL’s strategy is to locate its testing centers close to its customers, which include First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) and Sunpower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA), Smidt says. The organization, which began more that 100 years ago to provide safety testing for the nascent electricity industry, is also branching out into testing other renewable energy products, including wind turbines and biofuels infrastructure.

In addition to UL’s efforts in the renewable energy space, in January it launched UL Environment, a subsidiary that provides environmental claim certification, primarily for electronics and building products. UL Environment validated its first claims in June, for Serious Materials’ EcoRock drywall.