As solar becomes one of the world’s most important sources of energy, the expectations placed on solar modules have changed. A decade ago, buyers compared panels mostly by wattage and price but today, the conversation is about durability, reliability, safety, traceability, and long-term performance. Behind all these expectations lies one powerful factor, certification.
Certifications qualify a product, but they also build confidence for developers, EPCs, utilities, financiers, insurance providers, and end users. As solar markets grow more interconnected, certifications play a vital role in ensuring that modules manufactured in one country can be safely deployed in another.
For manufacturers such as GREW Solar, which serve India’s fast-expanding domestic market and the international market, certifications and traceability are the foundation of global readiness.
Why Certifications Matter in Solar Module Manufacturing
Solar modules are exposed to decades of weather, heat, humidity, mechanical stress, and electrical load. Without a reliable system of standards, it would be impossible to guarantee how they perform over time.
Certifications exist to answer a few fundamental questions such as:
- Will the module perform consistently for 25+ years?
- Is it safe to install on homes, commercial rooftops, or utility-scale sites?
- Can it withstand real-world conditions like heat, dust, corrosion,snow, strong winds, hail, storms?
- Has it been manufactured using processes that ensure repeatable quality?
- Does the product’s supply chain meet regulatory and ethical requirements?
By setting clear testing and validation benchmarks, certifications help reduce risks and protect investments in any project. They also ensure that solar installations meet the safety and performance standards required by local authorities and utilities.
Certification Pathways in India: BIS, IS Standards & ALMM
India has built one of the most comprehensive certification ecosystems in the solar industry, shaped by the country’s rapid growth in installations and the need to standardize quality across diverse project environments.
• BIS / IS 14286 (Mandatory Standard for India)
BIS certification is compulsory for any solar module sold or deployed in India, and IS 14286 forms the foundation of this requirement. Adapted from the IEC global standards, it evaluates whether a module is structurally sound, electrically safe and capable of maintaining performance over many years of operation.
It also acts as the first safeguard against low-quality or unverified modules entering the Indian market.
• ALMM (Approved List of Models & Manufacturers)
The ALMM is not a testing standard but a quality assurance mechanism used by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). It verifies whether manufacturers have the processes, traceability and factory-level controls needed to consistently deliver certified modules.
ALMM ensures that the modules supplied for government-linked projects come from verified facilities following standardized production practices. This improves transparency and reduces the risk of inconsistent performance, particularly for large utility-scale installations.
• Extended IEC Testing for Indian Climate Conditions
Beyond mandatory BIS compliance, manufacturers also rely on extended IEC tests to demonstrate suitability for India’s varied and often harsh environments. These tests provide deeper insight into how modules behave under specific regional stressors.
The Global Foundation: IEC Certifications
Across most global markets, including India, the quality and durability of a solar module are proven through a set of IEC certifications that form the industry’s baseline for performance and safety.
IEC 61215 establishes that a module’s design can withstand decades of real-world conditions, while IEC 61730 confirms its electrical and structural safety. Additionally, other standards address specific environmental stresses such as IEC 62804 for PID resistance, IEC 62716 for ammonia exposure, IEC 61701 for salt-mist corrosion, IEC 60068 for sand and dust, and IEC 62759 for transport durability. Many manufacturers also complete extended “3×IEC” reliability testing, which pushes modules beyond standard cycles to validate long-term resilience.
Together, these certifications create the global benchmark that modules must meet before entering most markets. India builds its mandatory requirements on this IEC framework, while the United States adds an additional layer of UL-driven safety and code compliance.
Certification Frameworks Shaping the U.S. Market
As solar manufacturers expand into international markets, it becomes important to recognise that different regions follow their own regulatory frameworks. While India relies on IEC-based testing and BIS compliance, the United States evaluates modules through UL safety standards and region-specific building and electrical codes.
These requirements confirm that a module is safe to install across American residential, commercial and utility-scale environments, even though the technical aspects differ from India’s. The underlying purpose, however, is the same, which is ensuring that every module deployed in the field delivers reliable, long-term performance. For manufacturers operating across both regions, this simply translates into maintaining the compliance pathways as per each market’s expectations.
Supply-Chain Traceability & Domestic-Content Rules
As the global solar sector matures, buyers and regulators increasingly want transparency about how a module performs, where it comes from and how responsibly it was made. This shift is redefining what quality assurance means for manufacturers.
In India, traceability appears in frameworks such as ALMM, where factory audits, documentation checks and process validation help ensure that certified modules are produced within approved facilities using verified materials. Programs like PLI further reinforce domestic value-add requirements, encouraging manufacturers to document and track their supply chains with greater clarity.
In the United States, traceability has become even more central due to policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Under this system, project developers, utilities and financiers actively assess the origin of components like wafers, cells, frames and junction boxes to qualify for incentives. This demands clear, auditable evidence of sourcing, production routes and domestic content.
Across both markets, certifications and transparency offer a fuller picture of quality, accountability and compliance for long-term solar deployment.
The GREW Solar Approach
Meeting the expectations of both certification and traceability requires a blend of disciplined engineering, robust quality systems and transparent manufacturing processes. GREW Solar aligns with this shift with a compliance framework that’s built to serve both domestic and international markets.
GREW Solar’s PV modules are undergoing compliance processes for key global standards, including IEC 61215 for design qualification, IEC 61730 for safety, IEC 61701 for salt-mist exposure, IEC 62716 for ammonia resistance, IEC 60068 for sand and dust, IEC 62804 for PID resistance, IEC 62759 for transport durability and extended “3×IEC” reliability evaluations. These certifications, once completed, will reinforce the long-term performance and environmental suitability of our module technologies across diverse operating conditions. For Indian tender eligibility, GREW Solar complies with the mandatory BIS / IS 14286 requirements. For international markets, GREW maintains adherence to UL 61730, supporting safe deployment in regions where UL standards are required.
On the manufacturing side, GREW Solar operates under ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, reinforcing quality management, environmental responsibility and workplace safety across its production lines. These standards establish the process discipline needed to ensure repeatable quality at scale.
As GREW Solar advances its three-stage backward integration, extending visibility from modules into cells, wafers and ingots, it gains deeper traceability across its material and production ecosystem. This integration strengthens compliance with programs such as ALMM and PLI while making sure the company meets global expectations around documented sourcing, domestic-content qualification and transparent manufacturing.
The Future of Solar Standards
As solar adoption accelerates across India, certifications and traceability will continue to shape how technology is manufactured and trusted. The market relies on these frameworks to reduce risk, safeguard installations and ensure that solar assets perform consistently for decades. The future points toward more rigorous reliability testing, clearer documentation of materials and closer alignment between domestic and global standards.
For manufacturers and for the wider industry, it sets the stage for a more accountable, reliable and resilient solar ecosystem.
