Paul Feenstra, Vice President Fluke EMEA at Fluke Corporation, explores the essential tools needed to ensure safety, efficiency, and compliance in Europe’s rapidly growing solar energy sector.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Europe is undergoing a solar ‘revolution’, with the solar energy market in EMEA experiencing unprecedented growth driven by legally-binding targets for creating a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. On the road to achieving this, all EU member states have pledged that by 2030 they will have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% (compared to 1990 levels) and by 90% a decade later, according to the European Commission.
As the solar market expands, there are some key areas that need to be addressed by anyone hoping to operate successfully within the sector. These include safety, workflow efficiency and compliance with regulations. With such a rapidly developing industry, it is inevitable that managing change will be a major factor, including bringing the workforce and the power grid up-to-speed.
Safety first
Safety has always been essential in the electrical sector but there’s an even greater focus now with the growing number of high-voltage solar installations, especially utility-scale PV arrays. In particular, electricians need tools with safety designed in that enable them to navigate the growth in today’s solar environments confidently and securely.
The ideal tool in such an environment is a meter that ensures compliance with CAT III 1500 V and CAT IV 1000 V measurement categories under the IEC 61010 standard. The categories relate to the amount of energy that could be present at any point in a circuit, including transient voltages (surges or spikes). The higher the voltage the greater the ability to withstand energy transients, so a CAT III 1500 V meter is much more resistant (which means it offers superior protection) than a CAT III 1000 V meter.
CAT III 1500 V DC systems are common in utility-scale PV systems because they offer significant cost savings and efficiency improvements to facility owners. By operating at higher voltage levels, these systems allow each inverter to handle more energy, enable longer strings of connected panels to be used and reduce the need for additional wiring and inverters. As a result, standard CAT IV inverter outputs of 800 V AC or higher are more prevalent, making it crucial to prioritise safety.
A digital multimeter (DMM) measures a number of electrical properties, including voltage, current and resistance. Digital multimeters have replaced traditional analog meters because they deliver higher accuracy and reliability. DMMs are capable of taking precise electrical measurements, are less susceptible to temperature changes and are less likely to drift over time. They also have a high input impedance which ensures accurate measurements and prevents damage to sensitive electronic components. Modern DMMs display all measurements on a backlit digital screen, making it easy to read and understand the results.
Operators using a CAT III 1500 V/CAT IV 1000 DMM in solar installations know they can work confidently in higher voltage environments without compromising safety, especially if they supplement the tool with safety-rated silicone test leads. Users can also troubleshoot individual strings of modules safely, taking more accurate AC/DC measurements up to 60 A, if they attach a non-contact current clamp. Because this eliminates the need to touch live wires, operators can close the clamp in a cabinet and take measurements from a safe distance. Other important safety features that should be looked for in a DMM include visual and audio polarity indicators with on/off function which help to prevent accidental wiring issues.
Boosting efficiency
With increasing demand for large-scale PV arrays in the EMEA region that consist of many hundreds of panels, there is a greater need to streamline their installation and maintenance. Delays and setbacks of any kind can be extremely costly. In such countries as Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, a firm emphasis has been placed on improving workflow efficiency while reducing project costs and keeping them within budget.
Again, it is a major benefit if a digital multimeter that’s used in a solar environment has a number of time-saving features, such as a user-defined limit gauge which speeds up go/no-go troubleshooting decisions. Having an adjustable limit gauge can trigger audio and visual indications whenever a measurement falls outside the expected range. This enables measurement results to be evaluated rapidly and any potential issues to be flagged up early in the process, making it easier to maintain optimum performance in a PV installation.
Likewise, a built-in readiness self-check facility can give the operator confidence that the DMM is functioning correctly and capturing the right data in real time, every time. Not only can the meter’s calibration be checked quickly with such a feature but the user also has an easy to understand snapshot of battery life availability, test lead functionality and AC/DC voltage measurement functionality.
Efficiency can be increased further with the use of a non-contact current clamp that eliminates the problem of tangled wires. A thin jaw design on the clamp would also make it easier to access combiner boxes and tight spaces, enhancing overall efficiency in the measurement process. By using a DMM and wireless clamp together – such as the Fluke 283FC CAT III 1500V Solar Digital Multimeter and the A283FC Wireless Current Clamp – operators would be able to measure voltage and current at the same time, removing the need to change the measurement set-up to capture both sets of data. Also, voltage and current would be time-stamped, which means potential disparities caused by environmental factors would no longer be an issue. Finally, users would be able to boost system performance by being able to see more than one measurement at a time, such as DC amperage and voltage.
Dealing with change
We’ve mentioned how important it is to use tools in a solar environment that can ensure compliance with evolving regulatory requirements across EMEA. Countries like France and Italy are rolling out extensive new solar capacity and compliance with stricter safety regulations and performance criteria is non-negotiable. As everyone knows, compliance with electrical regulations is vital to preventing harm and ensuring safety in installations so solar professionals must have at their fingertips all the data that’s required to achieve full compliance and avoid penalties.
Change also comes in the form of grid modernisation, which is essential if renewable energy sources are to be integrated seamlessly into the grid. Keeping the grid up-to-date can also minimise power outage issues and make the grid more resilient. As countries like Germany and the UK have found, building a brand new grid may not be feasible so existing power grids are having to be upgraded to cope with the rapid expansion of solar energy capacity. Also, the workforce operating in this growing sector need to be trained so that they can cope with the added pressures brought about by such a rapidly growing market. New technical skills are required by solar professionals so they are up to speed not just with installations but also with grid integration, energy management and regulatory compliance. Continuous education and training programmes are essential to delivering a resilient energy future.
To sum up, Europe is most certainly going through a solar revolution and companies operating in this increasingly important market have to ensure all aspects of their operations are up-to-date in so many ways – technology, compliance, skills and more. The only way to achieve this is for their engineers to be given the best tools and training available and that’s what Fluke is committed to providing.