Experimental Platform For Outdoor Characterization Of Photovoltaic Modules Under Hot Climate

This paper presents a new test facility for outdoor characterization of photovoltaic modules. The test facility named "I-V bench" has been recently installed, within a sudano - sahelian climate, in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Our principal aim with this bench is to carry out different studies on photovoltaic energy productivity through the characterization of PV modules in real operating conditions. The experimental platform can receive up to 24 modules, from 1 Wp to 600 Wp that can be simultaneously monitored. In this paper, the principle of the operation of the test-bench is described. Then, current and voltage (I-V) data collected with the bench are used to find out the STC values of three different performance settings (open circuit voltage, short circuit current and maximum power) of PV modules. Several methods are proposed in the literature to translate outdoor values into standard conditions ones. Here, a comparison of results obtained with three methods, including the standard NF EN 60891: 1995-02, is performed. It has been shown that although the I-V data translation with model L5P leads to good accuracy, the best results for all photovoltaic parameters are obtained with the standard NF EN 60891: 1995-02. The relative errors obtained with this last method are 1.07 % and 1.13 % for the open circuit voltage and the maximum power respectively.