Cheap Camera Upgrade May Help Improve Solar Panel Testing
What Happened
Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, Research Center Jülich and Solarzentrum Stuttgart developed a method to use a modified consumer camera to measure the performance of solar cells. Instead of relying on expensive industrial imaging systems, they adapted a commercially available camera to capture infrared electroluminescence images that can be used to assess solar cell efficiency. The work was published in The Journal of Applied Physics.
Key Takeaways
The researchers found that a relatively inexpensive consumer camera can provide quantitative solar-cell performance measurements when properly calibrated. The approach could lower the cost of solar-cell testing and make advanced performance analysis more accessible to researchers and industry users.