Question about PV company codes

[Stein, Josh]

This is a general PV question.  Does anyone know if there is a list of standardized short abbreviations for different PV module manufacturers?  For example, Trina Solar modules have serial numbers that begin with “TSM”.  LG uses the “LG” prefix for their modules.  Mission Solar uses “MSM”. Jinko uses “JKM”. Other companies may not add any identifiers to their numbers.  I am building a database and need to define short codes for different companies and did not want to define them on my own if any existing standards or best practices are available.  One option would be to use their stock symbol, but these are not all very recognizable (e.g., Trina Solar = SHA, LG = KS, JA Solar = SZ).  Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

                Josh

[Miguel Sánchez de León Peque]

Hi Josh,

I never found one, so I'd suggest going with your own codes, but if you do find it at some point, please share! 😄

As you've found already, model codes are many times not available/clear, and manufacturers can change those at any time (do not always expect time consistency), this may indicate that the code is just something each manufacturer can arbitrarily set/modify without any consensus with other players in the market. JA Solar, for example, can use JAM, but also JAP as a prefix for their model numbers. Also, stock/ticker symbols can change depending on the stock market, and not all manufacturers may be traded in the same stock market. And as you have also found already, the brand names typically differ from the company names, and are many times "westernized" (i.e.: the original brand name and company name is many times in Chinese).

If you are looking to make it easier for the user of your database, I'd suggest going with the recognizable brand name, which is typically easier to understand than a code (ZX is hard to recognize as Znshine Solar). Note that even the brand name is sometimes not clear, since the "solar" suffix may come from an updated SEO/marketing strategy. Here again, that changes with time, and manufacturers may decide to add/remove those suffixes at any point. Since you are looking to create some kind of code, then it may be easier for you, since you can always remove the suffix and go with the brand name in all-caps (e.g.: TRINA, JINKO, LG...). Brand names are typically very time consistent, and when they change, they probably come with bigger brand changes (like logo and, very likely, the prefix used in their model names).

Best regards,

[cwh...@sandia.gov]

Josh,

The OB effort has a Product Registry in development. They started with loading the CEC product lists. A field in that registry is a ProductCode, which in turn contains a field for the manufacturer. I don't think the values are different from what appears in the CEC spreadsheets. The development server link is broken for me, let me find out.

As Miguel notes, product line codes may be more stable that manufacturer names which change with acquisitions, etc.

Cliff

[cwh...@sandia.gov]

And there's this: https://www.enfsolar.com/directory/

There's a manufacturer directory in that data, but downloading it is probably not possible.

Cliff

[Anton Driesse]

Maybe if you ask them nicely they will give you the just company list with their codes?

Anton

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