Solar owners want to get the most out of their arrays as possible, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. To help them maximize the amount of production project owners get out of their PV projects, ESA Renewables launched the Solar Power Production Guarantee. The product promises solar project owners a guaranteed production capacity or the difference between the guaranteed level and the amount actually produced.

The product, first developed in ESA’s home country of Spain, is offered under ESA’s operations and maintenance (O&M) agreements. Under the service ESA offers monitoring services as well as O&M to its projects as well as other solar projects throughout the U.S.

The system includes software and hardware allowing ESA to monitor the project, identify problems and fix them, according to ESA spokesperson Jennifer Pagan. It can be added when the project is being completed or installed as a retrofit.

“We usually try to do it for the remainder of the project,” she said.

The product is sort of like PV performance insurance and the company is working with an insurer to create the product, it’s among the first to do so, according to Pagan.

“As far as I know of, a lot of people have power production guarantees but not backed by a policy,” she said.

The product is offered with multiple monitoring levels, from monitoring at the individual panel level to the whole system level.

“You have a choice. This is a monitoring system that we have designed to meet needs of that particular customer. It doesn’t affect anything, except to give a guarantee that you get the same return you expected,” Pagan said.

To determine what level to guarantee the system at, ESA determines the level of monitoring the system owner wants then audits the system.

“We would see if there’s anything that needs replacing at that time,” Pagan said.

If something in the system is broken at the time of the audit, the project owner could replace it through the warranty or have ESA replace defective equipment. After the O&M contract is signed, ESA would take care of any broken components.