Outdoor PV Module And System Testing Facilities In Different Climates

As part of the “TruePower^TM Alliance”, which was initiated and is driven by SERIS, the institute operates high-precision outdoor testing facilities for PV modules and systems in different climate zones. For energy yield assessments, and eventually investment decisions, knowledge of the actual generated energy per year rather than the rated peak power under standard test conditions (STC) in the laboratory is much more relevant. However, the actual energy output depends strongly on the geographic location of the PV system. Therefore, SERIS has implemented outdoor testing facilities on both module and system level in the three most important climate zones: temperate (Germany, China), tropical (Singapore) and desert (Australia). Some of the world’s leading PV manufacturers are collaborating with SERIS and are field-testing their modules within the TruePower^TM Alliance.

SERIS applies its self-developed data acquisition system at the TruePower^TM sites. To date, through many years of working with clients and carrying out R&D projects, SERIS has achieved outstanding data acquisition rates of more than 99% per year, proving the robustness and reliability of its equipment.

The various PV module and system data (available in time intervals as short as 1 minute) include:

• Module temperature
• DC characteristics: V_oc, V_mpp, I_sc, I_mpp, P_mpp, I-V curve
• AC characteristics: voltage, current, active and reactive power, etc.
• Cumulative energy yield (DC and AC side)

In addition, every site location has a state-of-the-art meteorological station, using the following equipment:

• Pyranometer (horizontal and in-plane)
• Silicon sensor (horizontal and in-plane)
• Pyrheliometer
• Spectro-radiometer
• UV radiometer
• Ambient temperature
• Other meteorological sensors (wind speed & direction, humidity, rainfall)