equipment employing a standard light source with a spectral irradiance distribution similar to the natural sunlight used to evaluate characteristics of PV cells and modules
a) solar simulator class
rating method based on simulator performance for spectral irradiance match, non-uniformity and temporal simulator instability
NOTE Three classes of solar simulators are defined, class A, B and C, with A being the best
b) pulse type solar simulator
flashed light source consisting of one or more long-arc xenon lamps capable of irradiating large areas uniformly with little heat input to the PV cell or module being tested
c) steady-state type solar simulator
continuous light source frequently employing filtered xenon, dichroic filtered tungsten or modified mercury vapour with tungsten electrodes as the light source |