The purpose of the Advanced Characterization of Photovoltaic Devices Taskforce (PV Taskforce) is to help the development of novel PV devices for further expansion of solar power by establishing globally consistent PV performance characterization techniques — essential for reliable evaluation and deployment of solar technologies.

Key facts

Leaders: Dr. Masahiro Yoshita (AIST) and Dr. Harald Müllejans (EC-JRC)
Member institutions:
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), European Union
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Germany
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), United States of America
Launched: 2021 (following the Leaders Summary of the 2nd RD20 Conference, RD20 members were invited in May 2021 to submit taskforce proposals. These proposals were presented at the taskforce session held prior to the 3rd RD20 Conference, and after committee review the PV Taskforce officially launched its activities)
Status: Active

Objectives

To achieve its purpose, the PV Taskforce aims to establish globally consistent PV performance characterization techniques for PV devices and disseminate that knowledge to the PV community worldwide.
Toward that end, the PV Taskforce’s activities have been organized into two tiers:
Tier 1 — advanced performance characterization technologies;
Tier 2 — capacity-building.

Tier 1: Advanced performance characterization technologies
The objectives are to:
(a) establish highly accurate, advanced PV performance characterization technologies; and
(b) achieve conformity and consistency of PV performance characterization results across laboratories for highly efficient novel PV devices, with a specific focus on solar cells and modules.

Tier 2: Capacity-building
The objective of Tier 2 is to provide assistance for PV characterization technologies and develop human resources to laboratories in the worldwide PV community.

Research overview

To attain the objectives of technically oriented Tier 1, the PV Taskforce broke down the work into three rounds of interlaboratory comparisons.
The first round makes use of comparisons among four research institutes to confirm the consistency of PV performance characterization. The taskforce chose to focus on multijunction (MJ) PV devices, which are expected to deliver higher conversion efficiency.
The second round of interlaboratory comparisons also focuses on multijunction devices.
The third round will focus on emerging high-efficiency crystalline-silicon modules, which are an important segment of the world market.
Under Tier 2, the taskforce is considering providing technical training on PV characterization techniques to laboratories in the PV community, with the goals of supporting the deployment of characterization techniques and developing human resources.

Progress and outputs

Tier 1: Advanced Performance Characterization Technologies Round 1 (III-V Multijunction PV cells): Measurements to confirm the consistency of PV performance characterization results among the institutes have been completed at all participating laboratories, and the results are currently being analyzed and discussed with the goal of presenting them either in a peer-reviewed paper or at an international conference.

Next interlaboratory comparisons: The taskforce is continuing to discuss the next round of interlaboratory comparisons. Candidates include advanced III-V multijunction PV devices; III-V on Si or CIGS; and perovskite on Si. In parallel, for round 3, commercially available, emerging high-efficiency crystalline-silicon PV modules (e.g., PERC, SHJ, TOPCon) are also under consideration.

Tier 2: Capacity-building
To disseminate the knowledge to the PV community, the taskforce contributes technical information to the PVMET Wiki, a PV metrology knowledge base developed and maintained in the context of the EMPIR MetroPV project (led by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany).
PVMET Wiki website: https://wiki.pvmet.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

To further develop human resources, tools like webinars, streaming video-based learning resources and on-site practical training are under preparation and discussion.