Assessing the Power Output of Solar Panels

The power output of a photovoltaic module (PV modules) represents the key quantity to evaluate its quality and the energy yield and return of a photovoltaic system.

The planning of a photovoltaic system usually relies on the nominal power output. But in practice, the power output of a module differs to some extent from the nominal value, even when factors influencing the electrical properties such as temperature and irradicance are held fixed. This is a consequence of the physics of photovoltaics and the inherent variability even of top quality production engineering.

Since total quality control of all PV modules is infeasible in practice, one has to rely on a sample of modules to assess the quality of a shipment or a lot.

The methodology developed at PVStatLab and implemented in APOS allows to integrate statistically valid and cost minimizing quality control into the planning and construction of photovoltaic power plants.