As the industry moves towards high-efficiency PERC and n-type solar cells, it becomes increasingly difficult to measure the solar cells and modules accurately. Completely different cell and module testers are required due to the “capacitance” effects with these solar cells. Sinton Instruments has made this a priority, providing equipment for measuring the highest efficiency cells and modules for more than the last 20 years.
There are currently several efforts to standardize the measurement of high-efficiency cells and modules to account for these effects. Sinton Instruments is participating in these discussions. One contribution that we have made is to publish a paper in JPV establishing the physics behind the evaluation and optimization of testers for accurate measurements. The results in this paper apply to all types of methods for measuring high-efficiency cells. We hope that this peer-reviewed paper will help to form a technical basis for any standards that are developed.
The paper indicates how to report the measurement error due to capacitance from any silicon cell or module measurement. This is the fifth paper in a project at Sinton Instruments to define best practices for solar cell and module measurement, to inform our input into the various standards processes.
Find the paper for download here
