Solar panel dealers in Africa seek to curb counterfeits
by Bosire Nyairo
Source: Business Daily Africa
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=4928
Dealers in solar panels have urged Kenya’s standards body to intensify quality assurance measures against imports and false labelling of poor-performing panels. The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has the role of inspecting solar power items for standards and power ratings. But some solar panel importers said Kebs’ regulatory mechanisms were failing to catch a glut of panels in the local market that do not meet Kenyan market and that do not match their advertised level of performance.
“Kebs should follow up the goods to the market to ensure that consumers get the right quality,” said Maina Mumbi, managing director of Off-Grid Energy Alternative Technologies, which deals with solar equipment. “We were in the market this week and found some solar panels whose labels had been changed, for example, at Luthuli Avenue (in Nairobi).”
Mr Mumbi said he has asked Kebs to intensify its surveillance to ensure customers got the right value for their money. “The problem is at the point of entry . . . There needs to be closer scrutiny there.”
Five amorphous silicon (a-Si) brands are sold in Kenya, most imported from Europe, Asia and Australia. The brands include Free Energy Europe, Solar Cells and ICP-Solar. Others are Shenzen Topray1 and Shenzen 2, both from China. Some 25,000 solar systems are sold in Kenya every year, which researchers say is one of the biggest emerging solar markets in the developing world.
Kebs, however, says its surveillance mechanisms are in place, and that panels which were deceptively labelled were routinely confiscated and the culprits prosecuted. “We always test to verify whether what is declared is what is actually offered,” said Reuben Geshore, of the authority’s technical committee on renewable energy.
“We recall and discard overrated panels and prosecute the owners.”
Market players say the rapid increase in solar panel production worldwide has encouraged overrating of panels as a way to reap profits from unsuspecting customers, who later find themselves with underperforming or non-functional equipment.
China and India have both ramped up production, giving wider choice to local importers, but also, some say offering more potential for poor quality imports to enter the market A study conducted in 2004 and 2005 by Dr Arne Jacobson of Humboldt State University in the US, in conjunction with the Kenya Renewable Energy Association (Kerea) and several local importers of panels, found that two Chinese-originated panels performed well below their advertised ratings for power production. Joseph Muthoka, the country director of Chloride Exide, one of the bigger players in the Kenyan solar market, said buyers should only buy products from recognised sellers to avoid being duped.
“They should have a system properly sized for them according to their needs to avoid being ripped off,” Mr Muthoka told Business Daily. “They may end up paying slightly more but in the long run they will be assured that they will get what they are paying for,” he said.
Despite a Government rural electrification programme to extend grid electricity to all corners of the country, most of the rural population is still unconnected, and more people are turning to alternative power sources such as solar panels. It is those rural people, often low-income earners, that could be harmed most by buying a poorly performing panel. “The regulatory framework is terribly wanting,” said Daniel Munga, a marketing manager at another local importer, Kenital (Kenya) Ltd.
On its part, Kebs acknowledges the problem is still far from being resolved. Kenyans still buy panels whose maximum power output does not match the rating on the nameplate. “Some shops sell panels different from those on display,” admits Mr Geshore. “It is difficult for us to check everything that is in the stores,”
Most of the overrated panels that found their way to the retail market were imported into the country under the guise of other merchandise,” he said. “It is a common problem and we are working with Kenya Revenue Authority to make the system of scanning more effective.”