Traceability of solar irradiance, reference materials and validation of PV products and measurement methods
Photovoltaics (PV) are expected to make a major contribution to achieving European and global climate change mitigation goals over the coming 35 years. It is the renewable energy technology with the largest scope for cost reduction and efficiency gains, as well as exploiting the largest resource. The rapid technical evolution needs to be matched by standards to ensure the highest level possible of product quality, reliability and sustainability, as well as transparent market conditions. This requires reliable, reproducible and widely applicable measurement protocols for the assessment of electrical performance of PV devices of traditional as well as emerging PV technologies. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) plays a prominent role in developing, validating and implementing such measurement protocols, exploiting more than 35 years of expertise developed in the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), the European Commission’s reference laboratory to validate electrical performance and lifetime of PV devices. The JRC works together with policy makers, industry and the research community to monitor the progress of PV technology and helps develop the solutions for the future. This directly supports the European Union’s objective of attaining an increasing share of renewable energies in the market (20% in 2020 and at least 32% in 2030).
ESTI is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration laboratory. As such, it is involved in benchmarking, intercomparisons (bilateral and round robin (RR)) and proficiency tests to maintain and improve its measurement capabilities for solar irradiance and electrical performance of PV devices. The results of these international activities is directly used, mainly through the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Technical Committee 82 (IEC TC 82), as input for revision of existing standards or for development of new standards for assessment of the electrical performance of PV devices. This work concerns both measurement methods and PV technologies. Furthermore, ESTI actively promotes transfer of knowledge about the measurement procedures to the European and International research community, provides the PV traceability chain by generating PV reference materials for its partners and clients and offers verification of PV devices (mainly based on new technologies).
In this report the activities of 2018 are summarised. Starting from the traceability chain of solar irradiance measurements according to international standards, the activities of ESTI in establishing the PV traceability chain at its own laboratory is outlined. Then the activities in international intercomparison measurements for the major instruments used in the traceability chain are described, starting from cavity radiometers and spectroradiometers to PV devices (both cells and modules). These serve to establish the traceability, stability and conformity of ESTI calibration measurements. This in-house metrology activity is then used to provide the PV traceability chain to clients and partners by generating reference materials, i.e. by calibrating PV cells and modules for them under the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation as calibration laboratory. Another crucial activity is to verify those PV devices which claim to have achieved extraordinary performance, be it world record efficiencies or other performance beyond the usual. Last not least, the activities on measurement methods are described, which span from the actual development of new methods and their validation to their implementation into the ESTI quality system and ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation scope.
Thereby, this annual report:
— verifies the status of ESTI’s unique independent traceability chain for solar irradiance measurements;
— summarises benchmarking activities with peer external international organisations;
— summarises results of PV device calibrations performed for EU industry and research organisations;
— provides an update on the adequacy of measurement methods used to assess the electrical performance of PV products and prototypes.
MUELLEJANS Harald;
ZAAIMAN Willem;
GALLEANO Roberto;
PAVANELLO Diego;
SALIS Elena;
SAMPLE Tony;
BARDIZZA Giorgio;
LOPEZ GARCIA Juan;
KENNY Robert;
SHAW David;
FIELD Michael;
DUNLOP Ewan;
Muellejans, H., Zaaiman, W., Galleano, R., Pavanello, D., Salis, E., Sample, T., Bardizza, G., Lopez Garcia, J., Kenny, R., Shaw, D., Field, M. and Dunlop, E., State-of-the-art for assessment of solar energy technologies, EUR 29616 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-98740-3, doi:10.2760/2468, JRC114005.
2019-01-15
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC114005
978-92-79-98741-0 (online),
978-92-79-98740-3 (print),
1831-9424 (online),
1018-5593 (print),
EUR 29616 EN,
OP KJ-NA-29616-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-NA-29616-EN-C (print),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC114005,
10.2760/677480 (online),
10.2760/2468 (print),
