Dr. Mani is a professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering Technology at Arizona State University (ASU), the former director of ASU-Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory (ASU-PTL) and the current president of TUV Rheinland PTL, LLC. Dr. Mani has been involved in R&D activities related to photovoltaics and fuel cells for over 25 years, and photovoltaic module testing and certification activities for over 10 years. He has been involved in test standards’ development activities since 1996. He has served or has been serving as a member of various standards committees including Canadian Standards Council, IEEE, IEC and ASTM. He has taught or been teaching graduate level courses related to photovoltaics, fuel cells, electrolysis and batteries, and has published more than 50 journal and conference papers. With funding supports from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), DOE's Solar ABCs and local utility companies, Dr. Mani's applied research group currently focuses on the performance and reliability issues of photovoltaic modules and systems.

Abstract
The global growth rate for PV (photovoltaic) products has increased approximately 30 percent annually during the last few years. Several module manufacturers are projecting that their 2009 manufacturing capacity will exceed 1GW. Critical to this growth of the number of products is fast turnaround time of the module testing and certification process. Processes that require many months are no longer acceptable to companies that need efficient commercialization and a competitive advantage. Widespread addition of centralized and distributed PV systems onto the electric grid also requires improved knowledge of inverter and associated electronics reliability and lifetime. This will add the need to expand from testing single modules to entire PV "systems."
This talk will discuss current and emerging PV module technologies, testing and certification processes available now and issues that need to be addressed to decrease the turnaround time.