Solar Power’s Dark Side 偷工減料，中國太陽能產業陷入質量危機

偷工減料，太陽能產業陷入質量危機

TODD WOODY 2013年06月03日

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

加利福尼亞州伯克利的測試公司光伏組件實驗室的首席執行官傑亞·梅德布雷在仔細檢查太陽能電池板。

洛杉磯——在洛杉磯以東陽光充足的內陸帝國地區，一個巨大倉庫房頂上覆蓋著太陽能電池板，這些電池板開始運轉不靈時，它們預期25年的產品壽命剛剛過去兩年。

保護電池板的塗層脫落了，而其他一些缺陷已引發了兩場大火，使系統兩年無法運行，造成數十萬的收入損失。

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  Jim Wilson/The New York Times
  在光伏組件實驗室，乍得·索瑟德把一塊太陽能電池板從紫外線試驗箱中移出。太陽能產業質量問題引發了越來越多的關注。

這並非個案。全世界範圍內，測試實驗室、開發商、出資方和保險公司都在發現同樣的問題，並表示，價值770億美元的太陽能產業正面臨質量危機，而此時，太陽能電池板正要開始大範圍應用。

大多對質量的擔憂集中在中國身上。中國的太陽能電池板產能世界領先。

沒有人知道這個問題的影響範圍有多廣。現在沒有關於有缺陷太陽能電池板的全行業數據。發現產品缺陷後，根據保密協議，生產商的身份經常會保密，使得行業內問責變得更加困難。

但投入到太陽能設備安裝的數十億美元可能因而遭受損失，這些設備遍布各地，從沙漠里的發電廠，到郊區的屋頂。而當初這些資金投入的前提是，接下來25年里，太陽能電池板帶來的效益會超出其安裝成本。

就在這些質量問題產生之前，剛剛經歷了一輪太陽能建設的高 峰。在美國，太陽能行業協會(Solar Energy Industries Association)稱，太陽能電池板的發電能力從2003年的83兆瓦猛增至2012年的7266兆瓦，它們足以為超過120萬戶家庭供電。其中近 一半的發電能力是在2012年一年裡增加的，這意味着任何重要的問題可能需要數年才能顯現。

「我們需要面對這樣的現實：有人在偷工減料，」杜邦(DuPont)價值十多億美元的光伏部門的總經理科納爾·伯克(Conrad Burke)說，該部門為太陽能生產商提供原材料。

太陽能開發商Dissigno的首席執行官戴夫·威廉姆斯(Dave Williams)說，該公司的多個項目都出現過太陽能組件無法運行的問題。Dissigno公司位於舊金山。

「我不想杞人憂天，但我認為質量將成為一個長期威脅，」他說，「由於現在太陽能組件的材料每天都在變，生產商又不願分享信息，因此，很難說整體質量怎麼樣。」

中國的太陽能公司舉債數十億美元加速生產，導致太陽能電池板價格從2009年開始暴跌，如今它們正面臨著巨大的壓力要降低成本。

比如3月份，中國的銀行迫使尚德破產。2012年之前，該公司一直是世界上最大的太陽能產品製造商。

代表開發商和出資方檢查中國工廠的公司管理人員說，過去18個月內他們發現，即便是那些聲譽最好的公司，也在用更便宜、未經測試的材料替代合格材料。他們說，其他的品牌生產商則關閉了生產線，將太陽能組件的組裝工作轉包給小的生產商。

「在很多工廠我們都有檢查員，我們時常會發現那些對質量沒有控制的小型工廠在生產大品牌的產品，」法國人所有的測試服務公司STS認證(STS Certified)的總經理蒂鮑特·萊莫伊內(Thibaut Lemoine)說。2011年和2012年，STS在它的上海實驗室評估了21.5萬個太陽能組件，它發現產品不合格率從7.8%上升到了13%。

其中一次，在紐約證券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)上市的一家品牌生產商的一整批太陽能組件都被發現不合格，萊莫伊內說。他拒絕透露生產商的身份，說這是由於保密協議的原因。

「根據我們的測試，一些生產商肯定為省錢換上了中國的便宜材料，」光伏組件實驗室(PV Evolution Labs)的首席執行官傑亞·梅德布雷(Jenya Meydbray)說。該實驗室位於加利福尼亞州伯克利，提供測試服務。

過去18個月，對50個中國工廠進行檢查時，位於馬薩諸塞州馬爾伯勒的SolarBuyer公司發現了5.5%到22%的次品率，該公司的高級市場主管伊恩·格雷戈里(Ian Gregory)說。

一些中國生產商承認，質量已成為一個問題。

「有很多公司在壓低成本，不幸的是，是一些有着良好聲譽的公司在壓低成本，而且很多近些年成立的新公司也沒有建立我們過去在尚德所秉持的標準，」尚德首席技術官斯圖爾特·韋納姆(Stuart Wenham)說，該公司位於中國東部的江蘇省。

當被問到質量標準時，中國最大的生產商之一天合光能在一封郵件中回復道，「對於天合光能來說，我們節約成本時不會讓質量打折。」

太陽能電池板的核心是光伏電池，它能在受到太陽光照射時產生電。其中最關鍵的組件包括一層能防止電池受潮的薄膜，以及將夾在一層層玻璃之間的電池固定起來的封裝材料。

格雷戈里表示，多次檢查工廠發現，一些廠商一直在改用更便宜的材料，其中一些材料的有效期都已經過了。

他說，「如果材料不好，或者沒有經過徹底測試，它們不會黏合在一起，設備上的太陽能組件最終會散裂。」

光伏組件實驗室的梅德布雷表示，這正是2011年澳大利亞一個運行了一年的太陽能發電廠出現的情況。他說，測試證實，不合格的材料導致那些由中國人製造的太陽能組件的保護塗層老化。發電廠運營商不願自己的名字被公布。

「我覺得質量越來越讓人擔心，但它還不是主要的問題，」行業組織太陽能行業協會(Solar Energy Industries Association)的主席羅恩·雷施(Rhone Resch)說，「鑒於各企業都競相削減成本，那些處境艱難的企業可能會偷工減料。」

據能源部(Energy Department)國家可再生能源實驗室(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)負責光伏可靠性小組的科學家薩拉·庫爾茨(Sarah Kurtz)稱，實驗室已經研究了太陽能電池板截止2010年的表現。

「問題是，到底是整體情況在迅速惡化，還是說，只是幾家個別的企業在質量控制方面不盡如人意，」她說，「我聽到了許多擔憂，但尚未看到大量可靠的信息。」

隨着時間的推移，所有的太陽能電池板都會老化，發電量會慢慢變少。但德國太陽能監測公司Meteocontrol檢查在歐洲安裝的3萬個太陽能裝置時發現，80%的裝置發電不足。2010年，Enertis Solar公司對西班牙兩家發電廠六家生產商製造的太陽能電池板測試時發現，缺陷率高達34.5%。

羿飛(Enfinity)在美國和歐洲運營太陽能設備。其首席業務發展官鮑勃·霍珀(Bob Hopper)表示，出於對質量方面的擔心，他的公司已經不再購買中國製造的太陽能組件了。「在電力生產中，哪怕是少許未預料到的老化問題，都會給我們帶來嚴重的經濟損失，」他說。

在荷蘭，太陽能保險與融資(Solar Insurance and Finance)首席戰略官勒內·穆爾曼(René Moerman)表示，索賠數量最近增加了15%。他表示，3月份對英國一家太陽能發電廠進行的檢查發現，新近安裝的中國製造的太陽能組件中，12%都已經出問題了。他說，保密協議使他不能說出那些生產商的名字。

其他一些太陽能開發商和安裝商表示，他們尚未遇到質量問題。

「2012年安裝的系統的全年表現是迄今為止最好的，」美國最大的住宅太陽能安裝商日光城公司(SolarCity)的首席執行官林登·賴夫(Lyndon Rive)說。該公司購買的是中國英利和天合光能製造的太陽能組件。

中國以外的廠商也曾出現質量問題。比如，洛杉磯地區那座倉庫上安裝的那些有缺陷的電池板便是一家美國廠商製造的。一名記者獲准了解該項目的情況，但條件是不能公布有關各方的身份，因為已經達成了秘密的法律和解。

第一太陽能公司(First Solar)是美國最大的生產商之一，為了替換其在2008年和2009年製造的有缺陷的太陽能組件，該公司已經留出了2.712億美元。

並不是所有的太陽能開發商都在迴避中國廠商。自2012年開始，英利成為全世界最大的太陽能電池板生產商，去年，其美國子公司獲得了向加利福尼亞州一家發電廠供應太陽能電池板的合同。

「我能告訴你的是，英利沒有偷工減料，」英利美國分公司的運營副總裁布賴恩·格連科(Brian Grenko)說。他還補充說，自2009年以來，在運至美國的280萬個太陽能組件中，只有15個有缺陷的組件被退回給了英利公司。

但英利的高管承認，質量已經成了一個和競爭相關的問題。

目前，英利為消費者提供了一項全面的保險政策，而且已經在舊金山地區建立了自己的測試實驗室。

尚德高管韋納姆稱，生產商必須承擔責任，他還倡導設立不受制於太陽能行業的測試實驗室來評定質量。

「我們必須開始公布名字，」他說。

Solar Power’s Dark Side

By TODD WOODY June 03, 2013

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Jeyna Meydbray, chief executive of PV Evolution Labs, a testing company in Berkeley, Calif., scrutinized solar panels.

LOS ANGELES — The solar panels covering a vast warehouse roof in the sun-soaked Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles were only two years into their expected 25-year life span when they began to fail.

Coatings that protect the panels disintegrated while other defects caused two fires that took the system offline for two years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues.

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  Jim Wilson/The New York Times
  At PV Evolution Labs, Chad Southard removes a solar panel from a UV test chamber. Quality is increasingly a concern.

It was not an isolated incident. Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting similar problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption.

Most of the concerns over quality center on China, home to the majority of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity.

No one is sure how pervasive the problem is. There are no industrywide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult.

But at stake are billions of dollars that have financed solar installations, from desert power plants to suburban rooftops, on the premise that solar panels will more than pay for themselves over a quarter century.

The quality concerns have emerged just after a surge in solar construction. In the United States, the Solar Energy Industries Association said that solar panel generating capacity exploded from 83 megawatts in 2003 to 7,266 megawatts in 2012, enough to power more than 1.2 million homes. Nearly half that capacity was installed in 2012 alone, meaning any significant problems may not become apparent for years.

“We need to face up to the fact that corners are being cut,” said Conrad Burke, general manager for DuPont’s billion-dollar photovoltaic division, which supplies materials to solar manufacturers.

The solar developer Dissigno has had significant solar panel failures at several of its projects, according to Dave Williams, chief executive of the San Francisco-based company.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, but I think quality poses a long-term threat,” he said. “The quality across the board is harder to put your finger on now as materials in modules are changing every day and manufacturers are reluctant to share that information.”

After incurring billions of dollars in debt to accelerate production that has sent solar panel prices plunging since 2009, Chinese solar companies are under extreme pressure to cut costs.

Chinese banks in March, for instance, forced Suntech into bankruptcy. Until 2012, the company had been the world’s biggest solar manufacturer.

Executives at companies that inspect Chinese factories on behalf of developers and financiers said that over the last 18 months they have found that even the most reputable companies are substituting cheaper, untested materials. Other brand-name manufacturers, they said, have shut down production lines and subcontracted the assembly of modules to smaller makers.

“We have inspectors in a lot of factories, and it’s not rare to see some big brands being produced in those smaller workshops where they have no control over quality,” said Thibaut Lemoine, general manager of STS Certified, a French-owned testing service. When STS evaluated 215,000 photovoltaic modules at its Shanghai laboratory in 2011 and 2012, it found the defect rate had jumped from 7.8 percent to 13 percent.

In one case, an entire batch of modules from one brand-name manufacturer listed on the New York Stock Exchange proved defective, Mr. Lemoine said. He declined to identify the manufacturer, citing confidentiality agreements.

“Based on our testing, some manufacturers are absolutely swapping in cheap Chinese materials to save money,” Jenya Meydbray, chief executive of PV Evolution Labs, a Berkeley, Calif., testing service.

SolarBuyer, a company based in Marlborough, Mass., discovered defect rates of 5.5 percent to 22 percent during audits of 50 Chinese factories over the last 18 months, said Ian Gregory, the company’s senior marketing director.

Some Chinese manufacturers acknowledge that quality has become a problem

“There are a lot of shortcuts being taken, and unfortunately it’s by some of the more reputable companies and there’s also been lot of new companies starting up in recent years without the same standards we’ve had at Suntech,” said Stuart Wenham, the chief technology officer of Suntech, which is based in Jiangsu Province in eastern China.

When asked about quality standards, Trina Solar, one of the largest Chinese manufacturers, said in an e-mailed response, “For Trina, quality will not be compromised in our cost-reduction efforts.”

The heart of a solar panel is a photovoltaic cell that generates electricity when struck by sunlight. Among the most critical components are a thin film that protects the cell from moisture, and the encapsulant that seals the cell between layers of glass.

Mr. Gregory said repeat inspections of factories found some manufacturers had been constantly switching to cheaper materials, including some whose use-by date had expired.

“If the materials aren’t good or haven’t been thoroughly tested, they won’t stick together and the solar module will eventually fall apart in the field,” he said.

That’s what happened in 2011 at a year-old Australian solar plant, Mr. Meydbray of PV Evolution said. Testing confirmed that substandard materials were causing the Chinese-made modules’ protective coating to degrade, he said. The power plant operator declined to be identified.

“I think quality is increasingly a concern, but it’s not a major issue yet,” said Rhone Resch, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. “As companies race to cut their costs, some who are on the edge may take short cuts.”

The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has studied the performance of solar panels up to 2010, according to Sarah Kurtz, a scientist who manages the laboratory’s photovoltaic reliability group.

“The question is whether things are deteriorating rapidly or whether it’s a few isolated companies not doing so well on their quality control,” she said. “I hear a lot of angst, but I haven’t seen a lot of solid information.”

All solar panels degrade and gradually generate less electricity over time. But a review of 30,000 installations in Europe by the German solar monitoring firm Meteocontrol found 80 percent were underperforming. Testing of six manufacturers’ solar panels at two Spanish power plants by Enertis Solar in 2010 found defect rates as high as 34.5 percent.

Enfinity operates solar installations in Europe and the United States. Bob Hopper, Enfinity’s chief development officer, said his company had stopped buying Chinese modules because of quality concerns. “Even a small amount of unforecasted degradation in electricity production can have significant economic impact on us,” he said.

In the Netherlands, René Moerman, chief strategy officer of Solar Insurance and Finance, said claims had risen 15 percent recently. He said an inspection of a solar plant in Britain in March revealed that 12 percent of the newly installed Chinese-made modules had failed. He said confidentiality agreements prevented him from naming the manufacturer.

Other solar developers and installers said they had not experienced quality problems.

“The systems we installed in 2012 had the best performing year yet,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, the largest residential solar installer in the United States and a buyer of panels from China’s Yingli Solar and Trina.

Non-Chinese manufacturers have had quality problems as well. The defective panels installed on the Los Angeles area warehouse, for instance, were made by an American manufacturer. A reporter was granted access to the project on the condition that the parties’ identities not be disclosed because of a confidential legal settlement.

First Solar, one of the United States’ biggest manufacturers, has set aside $271.2 million to cover the costs of replacing defective modules it made in 2008 and 2009.

Nor are all solar developers shunning Chinese manufacturers. The United States subsidiary of Yingli, the world’s largest solar panel maker since 2012, won a contract last year to supply solar panels for a California power plant.

“The one thing I can tell you is that Yingli does not cut corners,” said Brian Grenko, vice president for operations at Yingli Americas, adding that only 15 defective modules had been returned to the company out of 2.8 million shipped to the United States since 2009.

Still, Yingli executives acknowledge that quality has become a competitive issue.

The company now offers a comprehensive insurance policy to customers and has established its own testing laboratory in the San Francisco area.

Mr. Wenham, the Suntech executive, said manufacturers needed to be held accountable and advocated creating testing labs not beholden to the industry that would assess quality.

“We need to start naming names,” he said.