JuCon^®

DC Cabling Harnesses for Solar Power Plants

DC cables are the “life veins“ of every PV system. In comparison with other PV structure parts, the DC cabling makes only 1% of the total investment costs of a new solar power plant. The cost savings from buying cheap cable harnesses are lost quickly in case of increased contact resistances or leakage current losses .

The JuCon^® DC cabling system offers first-class quality at a good price-performance ratio. No other cabling harness system for solar power plants has a comparable degree of impermeability as our JuCon series manufactured in Germany. The JuCon system is ideally suited for the construction of floating PV power plants.

JuCon advantages

No loss of yield due to minimal contact resistance
No system failures due to extreme weather resistance
Low O&M expenditure due to high-quality standard

25 year of expected service life
Proven system
Excellently suitable for floating PV power plants

Easy to integrate, modular system with many accessories
Comprehensive product range for implementing a 1500 V DC system (module clips, substructures, DC cables)

Case Studies for JuCon

Energix, ISR
570 MWp

Nofar Energy, ISR
100 MWp

JuCon Documents Request

Unique vulcanization process

The uniquie vulcanization process creates an irreversible chemical bond between the cable sheath and the JuCon.

Vulcanization ensures permanent tightness, even under mechanical stress and extreme climatic conditions. The JuCon encloses the joints with the same material as the sheathing of the respective photovoltaic cable.

Marcel Heilmann, production manager at Jurchen Technology

DC Cable quality matters

~2% of the CAPEX costs for a solar plant are related to DC cables. However, according to an EU-funded Solar Bankability Project, malfunctioning cables can account for up to ~20% of the project cost over the project life .

The investment in high-quality cables pays for itself within a year, due to much lower failures of high quality cables leading to significantly less loss of revenue.

The cost of a 10MWp fixed-tilt system is about 10 million EUR, out of which the cable costs are ~200K EUR, around ~2% of the project cost. However, DC cables are the most common cause of technical faults that lead to PV plant downtime. Cables-related downtime results in a loss of 8.34EUR /kWp/year. This is translated to 83,400 €/year. Including the acquisition costs, a 10MWp plant results in ~2.7M € after 30 years.

Download
DC Cabling Quality whitepaper

We use several test procedures in the quality assurance of our JuCon cables. If a sufficiently high force is not applied during crimping or if an incorrect crimping tool is used, cables are pressed insufficiently. As a result of the faulty contacting, the contact resistance between the cable and the sleeve increases due to corrosion on the individual strands. Furthermore, there is the risk that an incompletely crimped cable can be pulled out of the crimp sleeve.

To check the quality of the crimp connection, so-called micrographs of the crimping point are enlarged on a microscope. In the example right image shown, it is easy to see that almost no unwanted gaps have formed between the individual strands.

We regularly test our cable crimps. The pull test measures the quality of the crimping. In the pull test machine, tensile force (torque, measured in Nm) is applied to the cable. Example: For a Y-connection with a cable cross-section of 6 mm², the IEC standard specifies a torque of 680 Nm. With our JuCon Y-connection, we achieve 1175 Nm!

Due to the high water proofness, JuCon is optimal for the construction of Floating PV power plants.

The floating solar power plant Makor in Israel
uses ArCon DC cabling.

Example Configuration

Module table with 6 strings, each 15 modules, 1500V fuses

Fuse: JuCon In-line fuse

Junction: JuCon Y-Plug

Junction: JuCon ES2

This is the DC harness configuration of the example above.

Limondale Solar Power Plant
in Australia (349 MWp):

We supplied 80km (50mi) JuCon DC cabling harnesses with 10.000 pairs of connectors for this 349 MWp project.

Production in Germany

High materials and workmanship quality and long-lasting reliability are maintained at the production of JuCon DC harnesses in Germany.

Quality Control

Our quality control consists of:

1. Passage test
2. Spark test
3. Pull test

4. Contact resistance test
5. High voltage test
6. Final check

Technical Data JuCon
Rated voltage	up to 1,500 V DC
Insulation material	EVA-Compound 120 °C, acc. to DIN VDE 0282-2, HD22.1
Ambient temperature	- 40 °C to + 90 °C
Max. operating temperature	- 40 °C to + 120 °C
Resistance against	Ozone acc. to 2PfG 1913/04.11, UV acc. to 2PfG 1913/04.11, Moisture heat (steam heat test): 1,000 h at 90 °C and 85% humidity, according to DIN EN 60068-2-78, Long-term-resistance of insulation to DC acc. to 2PfG 1913/04.11: 240h, 1,5kV DC in water at 85°C, Ammonia, 30 days in saturated NH3-atmosphere (internal test)
Flammability (internal tests)	Single cable acc. to DIN EN 60332-1-2, Multiple cable acc. to DIN EN 50305-9, Lower smoke emission acc. to DIN EN 50268-2, Absence of Halogens acc. to EN 50525-1, appendix B, Lower toxicity acc. to DIN EN 50305
Degree of protection	IP 68 (1h, 1 m)
Spark test	15 kV AC
Dielectric strength acc. to 2 PfG 1913/04.11	Voltage test 1h in water, 6,5 kV AC (5 minutes)
Contact resistance (measured acc. to TÜV 2 PfG 1913/04.11: directly at the output of the cables of the moulding od connection splice)	≤ 0,5 mΩ
Tensile test	acc. to TÜV 2 PfG 1913/04.11