A team of European researchers has come up with a methodology to gauge power potential of photovoltaic cells twice as accurately as existing systems.
UPI reports that the findings detailed in a recent issue of the journal Metrologia will help improve research and development efforts by enabling engineers to “clearly identify the impact of new materials and processes”.
The researchers believe the new measurement methods will reduce the margin of uncertainty and will make the solar energy industry more economic.
In Europe, solar cell power output is measured against five reference cells maintained by the Joint Research Commission (JRC).
Technological advancement has led to improvement in instrumentation, in turn, allowing JRC scientists to recalibrate the reference cells and minimize margin of error in measuring the power potential of new cells.
Ajith Kumar S
editor@greentechlead.com