IEC 60904-1:2020

IEC 60904-1 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-09
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Photovoltaic devices –
Part 1: Measurement of photovoltaic current-voltage characteristics

Dispositifs photovoltaïques –
Partie 1: Mesurage des caractéristiques courant-tension des dispositifs
photovoltaïques
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IEC 60904-1 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-09
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Photovoltaic devices –
Part 1: Measurement of photovoltaic current-voltage characteristics

Dispositifs photovoltaïques –
Partie 1: Mesurage des caractéristiques courant-tension des dispositifs

photovoltaïques
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 27.160 ISBN 978-2-8322-8814-6

– 2 – IEC 60904-1:2020 © IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 General requirements . 8
4.1 General . 8
4.2 Measurements . 9
4.3 Stabilisation . 10
4.4 Equivalence to steady-state performance . 10
4.5 Reporting conditions . 10
4.6 Translation from test conditions to reporting conditions . 11
5 Apparatus . 11
6 Measurements in natural sunlight . 12
6.1 General . 12
6.2 Test procedure . 13
7 Measurement in simulated sunlight . 14
7.1 General . 14
7.2 Test procedure . 15
8 Data analysis . 16
8.1 Translation from test conditions to reporting conditions . 16
8.2 Extracting I-V curve parameters . 17
8.3 Evaluating measurement uncertainty. 17
9 Test report . 18
Annex A (informative) Device area measurement . 19
A.1 General . 19
A.2 Definition of device area . 19
A.2.1 General . 19
A.2.2 Total area (A ) . 19
t
A.2.3 Aperture area (A ) . 19
ap
A.2.4 Designated illumination area (A ) . 19
da
A.3 Area measurement of PV devices . 19
Annex B (informative) Measurement of current-voltage characteristics for PV devices
with capacitance . 22
B.1 General . 22
B.2 Definitions. 22
B.3 Relative error due to capacitance . 22
B.4 Methodologies to suppress the measurement error . 24
B.4.1 General . 24
B.4.2 Measurement at steady-state conditions . 24
B.4.3 Measurement at quasi-steady-state conditions . 25
B.4.4 Common methods for characterisation of capacitive PV devices . 25
B.5 Report. 26
B.6 Reference documents . 26
Annex C (informative) Measurement of photovoltaic current-voltage characteristics
without illumination (dark I-V). 28

C.1 General . 28
C.2 Apparatus . 29
C.3 Procedure . 29
C.3.1 General . 29
C.3.2 Dark I-V curve measurements . 30
Annex D (informative) Influence of spatial non-uniformity of irradiance on I-V curve
parameters . 31
D.1 General . 31
D.2 Reference documents . 32
Bibliography . 33

Figure 1 – Schematic current-voltage characteristic (I-V curve) depicting typical I-V
curve parameters short-circuit current (I ), open-circuit voltage (V ), maximum
sc oc
power (P ), voltage at maximum power (V ) and current at maximum power
max Pmax
(I ). 8
Pmax
Figure 2 – Schematic power-voltage characteristic (P-V curve) depicting typical I-V
curve parameters open-circuit voltage (V ), maximum power (P ) and voltage at
oc max
maximum power (V ) . 9
Pmax
Figure A.1 – PV module (rectangular) . 20
Figure A.2 – PV module of different geometries (pentagon, trapezoid) . 20
Figure A.3 – PV cell (cut corners) . 21
Figure A.4 – PV cell (rounded corners, circle) . 21
Figure B.1 – Equivalent circuit diagram for device exhibiting a capacitance effect . 23
Figure B.2 – Three I-V curves (steady-state, forward sweep and reverse sweep)
showing the effect of device capacitance on the curve shape . 23
Figure B.3 – Deviation of maximum power (P ) determined from I-V curve due to
max
the effect of device capacitance with respect to steady-state result as a function of
sweep rate . 24
Figure C.1 – I-V characteristics without illumination (dark I-V curve) . 28
Figure C.2 – I-V characteristics under illumi
...