indoor and outdoor evaluation of global irradiance sensors

• DOI: 10.4229/eupvsec20152015-5co.5.3
• Publication Date: 2015-01-01
• Authors: Joshua S. Stein; N. Taylor; D.S. Riley; Anton Driesse; Willem Zaaiman
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; OPERATIONS, PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF PHOTOVOLTAICS (FROM CELLS TO SYSTEMS); Operation of PV Systems and Plants; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 7. Clean energy

Global irradiance sensors supply essential information in the business of planning and operating PV Systems. Errors and uncertainty in irradiance measurements propagate to uncertainty about performance and profitability. PV Performance Labs initiated the PVSENSOR project in 2014 to more fully characterize commercial irradiance sensors, with the objective of reducing such uncertainties. In the first phase of indoor testing we tested 21 pairs of instruments using multiple solar simulators (both pulsed & continuous, large area & small), environmental chambers, spectrally selective and neutral density filters, and corresponding reference instruments. The second phase has all sensors mounted outdoors on a two-axis tracker that is programmed to follow different trajectories while all sensor outputs are recorded. This paper provides selected results from both tests sets, highlighting differences between sensor categories.<br/>31st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1704-1709<br/>