Lifecycle Quality Best Practice Guidelines

As the solar PV industry in Europe has matured, quality assurance throughout their lifecycle has helped power plants perform more efficiently and for longer. Although advances in technology have helped this process, doing the basics right has underpinned the consistent decrease in the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) that has made solar PV competitive against conventional fossil fuels and other renewables. This will continue to be the case in the future as well.

To improve and standardise the levels of quality assurance in Europe, SolarPower Europe has produced a suite of guidelines that cover Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC), Operation & Maintenance (O&M), and Asset Management (AM). However, the lines that mark the difference between these services and the people who provide them are becoming increasingly blurred. This document seeks to capture the elements of quality assurance that are common to all lifecycle phases. It explains the core concepts that underpin the best practice recommendations in the rest of SolarPower Europe’s guidelines and should be read in conjunction with them.

These guidelines include definitions of the key terms in quality assurance and detail the roles of the principal stakeholders involved in a power plant’s operation. In a new approach, it groups together the four key pillars of lifecycle project management: risk management, health, safety, security and environment, due diligence, and quality management, explaining them and advising how to apply them at each stage of a project. It also includes guidance on potential pitfalls as projects move from one stage of their lifecycle to another. This is treated separately to lifecycle project management as the transitions between stages can pose continuity problems for a project. Finally, these guidelines provide a comprehensive overview of the skills required to successfully manage a solar PV project throughout its life.