Mitsui Chemicals, PI Berlin to launch PV panel testing lab in India

Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals Inc (TYO:4183) will collaborate with Germany’s PI Photovoltaik-Institut Berlin AG (PI Berlin) to jointly set up a testing and certification lab for solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in India that will potentially expand to a diagnostics business for panels and power plants.

The facility will conduct certification in line with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) testing requirements that the Asian country adopted last month so as to curtail the use of low-quality PV panels. First tests at the lab in Ahmadabad, Gujarat state, will start from August 2019, Mitsui Chemical said on Wednesday.

The partners intend to launch construction of the testing and certification centre in October, targeting completion in March 2019. Their long-term goal is to roll out a diagnostics business for panels and power plants.

Mitsui Chemicals noted it has been involved in the diagnostics business for PV power generation in Japan since 2014. It will transfer the model in India through its affiliated company Mitsui Chemicals India Pvt Ltd, it said.

Both domestic and international solar manufacturers and sellers in India are obliged to register their products under the BIS parametres, which became effective from July 1.

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