Japanese Indoor Calibration Method for the Reference Solar Cell and Comparison with the Outdoor Calibration

Abstract

Details of the established Japanese indoor calibration method for solar cells were introduced and various kinds of reference cells were calibrated using the indoor and outdoor methods for comparisons. It was found that both calibrated values were very consistent and nearly equal for crystalline Si cells, while the total irradiance detected with an absolute spectro-radiometer in the indoor calibration was about 2% higher than that detected with a pyranometer EKO MS-801 confirming to the current World Radiometric Reference. Also, the calibration errors due to a deviation from the cosine response for a low incident angle were found to be about 2% for an inert gas-sealed crystalline Si cell and about 1% for unpackaged and module-packaged crystalline Si cells.