A major barrier to the development of markets for stand-alone PV systems is the lack of good quality national and international standards and QA procedures. This is illustrated by the fact that the quality of PV systems up to now has varied considerably. As a result of these poor quality systems in the past, the markets of today are impeded.

The issue of performance guarantees for PV systems is extremely complex, not least because of the many different players involved in the design, supply, installation, operation and maintenance of a PV system. To guarantee the quality level of an installed system each party must have a contractual responsibility: from the identification of the customer's energy requirements, through to installation, operation and maintenance activities.

Each stage in the life cycle of a PV system must be considered as a potential source of system failure; most of the maintenance and repair requirements result from failures in the specification, design, and installation of the system.

Experts worked on both methodological and practical aspects of quality assurance to provide end users and programme managers with guidance for the management of systems, projects and programmes.

Quality assurance schemes have been developed that will lead to a warranty of service for the end user at a reasonable cost.

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