New software tool to characterize photovoltaic modules from commercial equipment

Abstract

A software platform has been developed in order to unify the different measurements obtained from different manufacturers in the photovoltaic system laboratory of the University of Malaga, Spain. These measurements include the current-voltage curve of PV modules and several meteorological parameters such as global and direct irradiance, temperature and spectral distribution of solar irradiance. The measurements are performed in an automated way by a stand-alone application that is able to communicate with a pair of multimeters and a bipolar power supply that are controlled in order to obtain the current–voltage pairs. In addition, several magnitudes, that can be configured by the user, such as irradiance, module temperature or wind speed, are incorporated to register the conditions of each measurement. Moreover, it is possible to attach to each curve the spectral distribution of the solar radiation at each moment. Independently of the source of the information, all these measurements are stored in a uniform relational database. These data can be accessed through a public web site that can generate several graphics from the data.