Intercomparison of Different Energy Prediction Methods Within the European Project "Performance" - Results of the 1st Round Robin

The Energy Rating of a PV module and system is one of the most important pieces of information for an end-user. It helps the installer to guarantee a certain output which can then be verified by the end-user and it enables to choose between different products and solutions. There are currently different energy prediction methods under development in Europe. An extended collaboration to compare and validate these methods for the entire range of operating conditions across Europe is very important. A major European research project ‘Performance’ sets out to identify weaknesses and increase accuracy of these methods. A strong emphasis is put in the analysis of thin film technologies, which have shown in the past to have the highest uncertainty attached to any simulation. Within the project period, the work will be split into different phases in which the complexity of analysis will be increased continuously, by adding the results generated within the other work-packages of the Performance project, which are related to specific problems such as. environmental effects, power degradation/recovery cycles, inverter performance, etc. The first round robin test (RR), ending in July 2007, concentrates on the energy prediction of single PV modules and the determination of the accuracy of each single method when the in plane irradiance is given only by a pyranometer and not by a spectrally matched reference device, data which most of the times are not available. The objective is to quantify for each technology the error introduced by the use of pyranometer values and evaluate different modelling approaches for the correction of the error caused by the dissimilar spectral and angle of incidence response of the pyranometer compared to the PV module.

FRIESEN Gabi;  GOTTSCHALG Ralf;  BEYER H. G.;  WILLIAMS Sheryl R.;  GUÉRIN DE MONTGAREUIL A.;  VAN DER BORG N.;  VAN SARK W. G. J. H. M.;  HULD Thomas;  MÜLLER B.;  DE KEIZER A. C.;  NIU Y.;  KENNY Robert; 

2008-02-01

WIP - Renewable Energies

JRC36363