Dear Solarthermalworld.org reader,
The
final version of the EN ISO 9806 was approved in the middle of
September. This is an important milestone for the solar thermal
industry, because it marks the first time that there will be a modern
global standard for collector testing procedures which different
countries can refer to. In addition, the new standard includes testing
methodology for a number of new solar thermal technologies, such as
solar air heating, concentrating medium-temperature and PVT collectors.
The approval of the EN ISO 9806, however, is only half of the story. The
norm is voluntary and needs a national or regional labelling and
certification schemes to gain product-related references. The latest
news from Latin America show that a regional labelling scheme which
limits product sizes or changes boundary conditions may run the risk of
contradicting the original referenced international standard. The photo
shows an expert workshop organised by the Pan American Standards
Commission, COPANT, in Brazil in August 2013.
Sunny regards,
The Solarthermalworld.org team