Unisolar Roofing [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

I just downloaded the report and read it quickly. It is a very nice piece of
work but is focused on low-light conditions. They admit that they used
manufacturers information to scale the results of their tests for a-Si. I
believe this to be one fatal flaw with their analysis. Hopefully time will
prove me wrong. I look forward to next year's report from these folks.

Amorphous changes dramatically in many respects as it attenuates, so to use
a non-light-soaked module to determine performance versus irradiance is
potentially a huge mistake.

Their yield number then took these "suspect" numbers and ran them through a
simulation program. It beats no information by a long shot, but we need
more.

Bill.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Smiley [mailto:Eric_Smiley at bcit.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 12:41 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: RE: Unisolar Roofing [RE-wrenches]
>
>
>
> Regarding 3rd party testing. Photon International (a rather expensive
> European PV industry magazine) has an article in their November 2000
> issue on PV Module performance.
>
> I'll summarize the article:
>
> The Netherlands Energy Research Foundation (ECN) tested nine modules:
> BPSolar BP585 and MST 43, Kyocera KC60, Siemens S30 and SM-55, UniSolar
> US-32, ASE-100, Free Energy Europe A13P and Shell RSM75.
>
> The upshot of the testing:
> Te US-32 outperformed the other modules in terms of kWh produced per kW
> installed, under the relatively low-light conditions prevalent in the
> Netherlands.
>
> The explanation from ECN? Better efficiency at low irradiance, and a
> better temperature coefficient. The US-32 had an efficiency of about 6%
> at 1000 W/m^2, and 7.5% at 200 W/m^2.
>
> Example: Annual DC yield of 1164 kWh/kW for the US-32 versus 977 kWh/kW
> for the BP585.
>
> One caveat, (there's the word-of-the-day) the results were based on a
> combination of real world testing and computer simulation. I'm waiting
> for more real world tests before I hop on the bandwagon.
>
> The study results "Characterisation of PV modules new generations.
> Results of tests and simulations" are available from:
>
>
> http://www.ecn.nl/library/reports/2000/c00067.html
>
>
>
> >Also don't believe the garbage you read from manufacturers that a-Si
> does
> >better in cloudy areas and in different parts of the country. It is
> true
> >that every module has a different spectral response, but those are not
> >enough to make a big difference from climate to climate. They were
> making
> >those same claims 10 years ago when we were testing their tandum
> junction
> >products. We found that those products performed worse than any other
> >product in low light levels. That didn't stop the claims however.
>
> >Remember, without true 3rd party information on modules and inverters,
> you
> >should take any manufacturers information as marketing materials and
> not
> >fact.
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Eric Smiley
> Project Leader - BCIT Technology Centre
> Photovoltaic Energy Applied Research Lab (PEARL) - BCIT
> ph: (604)432-8657 www.bcit.ca/~tc/pearl/index.htm
>
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____________________________________________________________
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Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose.
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