Renewable Energy Project

REP will contribute to the development of better quality assurance schemes for solar and other renewable energy products and services, through support to the development of solar thermal testing capacity and upgrade of the PV testing capacity.

For this purpose, REP will develop a number of instruments that can be used to safeguard and to improve the quality of renewable energy products in the Nepalese market. The focal point of these efforts will be the Renewable Energy Test Station RETS and on testing of solar energy products. At RETS; laboratories for testing of solar thermal and ISPS products will be equipped by the REP.

This work will comprise:

Design of the test station
Development of a Code of practice
Supply of Equipment
Development of Standards and Tests based on international practice
Development of Manuals and procedures

New Solar thermal test laboratory
The following are the main products and tests foreseen that the new Solar thermal laboratory will be equipped for:

Solar water heaters: Performance, safety and durability tests
Water tanks: Heat loss measurement
Solar collectors: Performance and durability tests
Solar dryers: Performance and durability tests
Solar cookers: Performance tests
Field testing of solar thermal systems

Up-graded PV test laboratory
The following are the main products and tests foreseen that the upgraded PV laboratory will be equipped for:

Inverters: Performance and durability tests
PV panels: Performance tests
PV powered water pumping equipment: Performance and durability tests
Field testing of ISPS

A new building for the laboratory is to be provided through common efforts of RETS, NAST and the AEPC. The existing RETS laboratory will furthermore be upgraded so that the main components of Institutional PV systems (ISPS) can be tested. The REP will also support RETS in the development of new standards, in training of their staff and in the development manuals, guidelines etc. The platform for this work has now been developed through a needs assessment followed by the development of a long list of tests and related equipments. The REP Technical Advisory Committee discussed the list in a meeting at Summit hotel on December 3rd and based on this discussion a shortlist has been developed. The next step is to develop the detailed technical specifications for the tendering of test- and measuring equipment and to launch an international call for tenders. The RETS new laboratory facilities are expected to be operational by the end of 2007.