This work covers outdoor and indoor testing of a CdTe module from First Solar (FS-60). Outdoor characterisations were performed at PSI’s Solar Test Facility and indoor measurements at SUPSI-ISAAC Institute, Lugano. The location of PSI represents a typical site in the Swiss midland. The module was exposed outdoor on a sun tracker and tested under clear sky conditions as well as under a cloudy sky. During testing, the global-normal irradiance varied between 40 and 1054 W/m2, the cell module temperature between 13 and 68°C, and the relative air mass between 1.2 and 6.6. About 1360 I-V characteristics were acquired, allowing to plot the efficiency as a function of irradiance, cell module temperature and air mass. The data were used to validate a new efficiency model of PSI to calculate the module efficiency under real operating conditions on different sites. In order to investigate the difference between outdoor and indoor characterisation the module was measured with a pulsed sun simulator at SUPSI-ISAAC. The module was characterised by measuring the temperature coefficient and the full temperature-irradiance matrix in the range from 100 to 1000 W/m2 and from 25 to 65°C. Afterwards, the module energy output, under real conditions, was calculated with the energy prediction methods from PSI and the ‘Matrix-Method’ of SUPSI-ISAAC and the results were compared with the one year energy output data of the same module measured with the outdoor energy yield facility in Lugano.

25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 6-10 September 2010, Valencia, Spain; 3508-3512