Evaluation of Standard Reference Environment for Photovoltaic Nominal Operating Cell Temperature Testing in Malaysia

This paper presents six months evaluation in determining Standard Reference Environment (SRE) for Photovoltaic (PV) Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT) testing of IEC61215 and IEC61646 that suits Malaysian climate. The SRE is established based on the median environmental conditions in Malaysia when solar PV is producing power. The site of the study is located at the Energy and Environment Field Lab, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam(3.066239ºN, 101.491685ºE). Three types of PV module technologies involved are monocrystalline, polycrystalline and copper indium diselenide (CIS) thin film. The experimental setup is a test bed that meets the IEC61215, IEC61646 and IEC61724 requirements. The measurements of module temperature (MT) and open circuit voltage (VOC) are taken simultaneously for the three PV module technologies together with other ambient parameters of solar irradiance(SI), ambient temperature(AT), relative humidity(RH), wind speed (Ws) and wind direction(Wd). The data set is taken for a six months period from February 2017 to July 2017. Based on the results obtained, a new proposed SRE of NOCT testing for IEC61215 and IEC61646 has been established to suit Malaysian climate. The SI and AT values for the SRE are 300W/m2 and 31°C respectively