T. Domvoglou

An installation has started to be mounted on top of the building of the Institute of Microelectronics for the measurement of solar cells and panels under real conditions (field testing). The installation is equipped with pyranometers, for the measurement of the total solar energy and thermometers (Fig. 2(a)). All data are collected with a data logger (Fig. 2(b)).

(a)	(b)
Fig. 2 (a, left) a pyranometer and a thermometer installed in the field testing facility of IMEL. (b, right) a data logger is used to collect data having enough memory to store data from 8 inputs every 5 min for 8 months.

During the first year of the test field calibration measurements were made. Typical results are shown in Fig. 3 (a) where the measurements of a CP6 pyranometer are compared with those of a reference instrument (CP21).

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Fig. 3. (a, left) Irradiated energy as measured by a CP6 and a reference, CP21, pyranometers for one day (5/5/2010). The agreement between the two measurements is very good. (b, right) air temperature data for the same day.

One of the first panels installed at the test field of IMEL was an advanced, concentration type panel provided by DAIDO Steel Co (Fig. 4). Efficiencies of the order of 35 % were measured on this panel, which, were obtained under precision of the sun-tracking system of 0,1 degrees.

(a)	(b)
Fig. 4. (a, left) a concentration panel supplied by DAIDO Co with its tracking system under test at IMEL. (b, right) Typical I-V characteristic taken from this panel under dark.