Off-grid lighting and energy products offer consumers numerous advantages over conventional alternatives, at a lower life-cycle cost. However, the off-grid solar energy market is characterised by products of varying levels of quality and durability. Some are well designed and manufactured, whilst others fail to meet expectations in terms of safety, durability and performance.

In order to protect consumers from poor-quality products and to promote consumer confidence, we have developed a series of quality standards and testing methods for off-grid pico-PV systems and solar home systems (SHS) up to 350Wp. These standards were adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a benchmark for the quality assurance of off-grid solar products (Technical Specification IEC 62257-9-5) in 2021.