Characterization of Simulator and Relative Spectral Responsivity Measurements of Photovoltaic Modules with Band Pass Filter Technique

Abstract

One of the most important parameter used for the evaluation of the energy rating of PV modules is, their spectral responsivities which are the measure of electrical performance parameters per incident solar radiation. In this work, spectral responsivity measurements of a mono-crystalline, a poly-crystalline, a CIGS thin film and a bifacial module were measured using xenon-based flash type solar simulator system and a set of band pass filters. For the comprehensive characterization of parameters that may influence the spectral responsivity measurements, initially the simulator system was characterized both optically and thermally according to the IEC60904-9 and IEC60891 standard requirements. The optical characterizations in terms of spectral match, spatial non-uniformity and temporal instability indicate that the measured results (~3.0%, ~0.30% and ~0.20%) according to the IEC 60904-9 standard’s classification requirements correspond to A+A+A+ classes. Moreover, thermal characterizations in terms of the temperature uniformity show that over the 2 × 2 m area temperature uniformity of simulator system’s light distribution (1ºC) is almost two times better than the IEC 60891 standard requirements (±2ºC). Next, PV modules were electrically stabilized according to the IEC 61215-2 standard requirement’s (stability test) to reduce the fluctuations in their electrical performance parameters. Then, using the band pass filters, temperature controlled xenon-based solar simulator system and a reference PV module of the spectral responsivity of PV modules were measured from 400 nm to 1100 nm with 50 nm steps with relative uncertainty of 10-3 level.