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37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1168-1170, Energy Rating is a technique that enables a more realistic comparison of PV module performance. In this work, we utilize an LED solar simulator to measure two crucial input parameters for Energy Rating: the power matrix and the spectral responsivity of a poly-Si PV module. The power matrix is measured in a higher resolution compared to the minimum requirements given by the Energy Rating standard IEC 61853 and the obtained dataset is used to determine inter- and extrapolation issues that may arise from the low resolution demanded by the standard. It is shown that for the examined poly-Si module the low resolution is sufficient and yield differences of less than 0.15 % occur.

25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 6-10 September 2010, Valencia, Spain; 4232-4235, Commercial large-area solar simulators are principally in the form of Xenon flashers, which intrinsically have a short flash duration time, typically 100 ms at low spectrum quality and 10 ms at high spectrum quality. This implies measurement time constraints not adapted to the characterization of new generations of photovoltaic modules such as high-efficiency crystalline silicon modules, which can exhibit transient effects leading to measurement artifacts [1]. Moreover, thin film technologies require a high spectral match and possibly a variable spectrum of the illumination source for the accurate power-rating of multi-junctions based solar modules. An alternative large-area solar simulator solution is proposed for the power rating and the diagnostic of such generations of solar modules. The developed simulator makes use of a combination of different power LEDs and halogen lamps in a particular matrix configuration, integrated into a 1 m × 1 m table with mirrors. The constructed prototype demonstrates an AAA classification according to the IEC norms [2], allows for long illumination (200 ms to continuous) and permits controlled variation of the spectrum and of the intensity of the illumination.