The National Cheng Kung University Fire Protection and Safety Research Center’s solar module fire-resistance-testing laboratory has been certified by U.S.-based safety science company Underwriters Laboratories Inc., the university said Sept. 20.
It is the world’s second lab and the first outside the U.S. to receive such testing certification, NCKU said.
“UL’s standards are very strict, and the fact that we have been certified will not only be helpful to domestic industries, but will also, it is hoped, bring us even more support,” said Kuo Ping-lin, director of the center.
Ralph Tang, general manager of UL’s Taiwan branch, noted that renewable energy research has been growing in importance and that related safety standards have become ever stricter.
“That the center received UL certification is an extremely rare honor,” he said.
According to Tang, Taiwanese manufacturers will no longer have to have fire-resistance testing carried out in the U.S., thereby providing a major boost to their research and development.
NCKU said it signed a cooperative agreement with UL in 2001, and following fire-resistance testing for construction materials, it completed the installation of the photovoltaic module testing lab this year.
The university said that with the lab’s certification, UL will in the future commission the center to carry out solar module fire-resistance testing for Taiwan and other countries.
Established in Chicago in 1894, UL was the first product safety standard and certification organization in the U.S. It currently has 6,000 employees worldwide, with branches in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
