UNBS develops new standards as ‘poor quality solar products flood market’
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) says it is in the final stages of developing a standard for products in the Solar Home System (SHS) and Pico solar categories following a public outcry of poor-quality solar products flooding the market.
Officials say plug and play products are the most forged.
This past Thursday UNBS held a public review of the Draft Solar Plug and Play standard IEC TS 62257-9-8:2020 in partnership with the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA), Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and RENCON Uganda.
They are now awaiting approval from the National Standards Council.
“The draft standard, IEC 62257-9-8:2020 provides baseline requirements for quality, durability and truth in advertising to protect consumers of off-grid renewable energy products in general,” reads an official statement.
The standards will counter fake products by ensuring there is “truth in advertising”, i.e., all “advertised features MUST be clear, true & accurate.”
“All numerical aspects shall not deviate by more than 15% from advertised values like Light output, run time, PV Power, charging time and others,” the statement says.
Solar products will have to acquire “recognized and valid consumer safety certification” before being rolled out on the market and batteries containing hazardous substances like mercury or cadmium won’t be allowed on the market.
UNBS says lumen maintenance must not fall below 90% of initial values after 2000 hours of operation and the battery capacity loss won’t exceed 25% during testing.
Components, connectors, switches and accessories must be strong enough to meet various stresses and strains and operation cycles of at least 1000, according to the standards in the offing.
During the public review, UNBS Standards Development Manager Andrew Othieno revealed that the Draft Standard, once approved, will be made mandatory for solar product dealers, importers, users, etc.
The UNBS Deputy Executive Director in charge of standards Patricia Bageine Ejalu also revealed that there will be a lot of import inspections and market surveillance activities to ensure that all poor-quality solar products are taken off the market.
A public review session is part of the final stages of developing a standard.
After the review, the draft standard is open to the public for comments until the end of this month, after which it will be submitted to the National Standards Council for approval.
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