An updated version of the PV systems Performance Database was released by IEA  PVPS Task 2 (Operational Performance, Maintenance & Sizing of PV Systems) in July.

The Performance Database contains high quality data of some 260 monitored PV plants worldwide with a combined capacity of more than 7 MW. Much of the data have been gathered under various national demonstration programmes in the PVPS member countries, including Austrian and German (1 000) Rooftop Programmes, the French Rural Electrification Programme, EU Thermie, Japanese Sunshine & Field Test Programmes and various Swiss demonstration programmes. The plants cover the range of application types – centralised power stations, domestic uses, rural electrification and professional applications – as well as grid-connected, stand-alone and hybrid configurations. The diverse global location of the systems provides information on PV operation under a wide variety of climatic conditions.

The new database features simplified procedures for data export to common spread sheet packages, improved filter and sort criteria to assist navigation within the database and an easy search tool to help locate information on a specific plant. Data import and export facilities have been expanded including automatic calculations of annual results. The tool can be used to check the operational behaviour of existing PV plants and to generate a performance report expressed in standard quantities to enable cross-comparison between different systems and different system types. In addition to annual irradiation and system output data for each plant, other useful performance indices, such as reference and final yields, system losses, performance ratio and array, inverter and system efficiencies are recorded.

This collection of such a variety of high quality operational data provides a unique tool for PV system performance analysis. The database application is designed for use by industry, utilities, manufacturers, system designers, installers and educational establishments and can be downloaded free-of-charge, or can be purchased on CD-ROM for EUR 20 (USD 18,5).

Contact:

• Reinhard Dahl, FZ-Jülich
  Fax: +49 (0) 2461 61 2840

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