Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has opened a new 3-hectare test field near Freiburg to test various solar technologies including solar PV modules and integrated PV systems to combine laboratory and field measurements more quickly and precisely.

The test field on the outskirts of Merdingen is an addition to the agency’s test fields on Gran Canaria and in the Negev Desert in Israel. It will also be able to test results for solar thermal collectors, inverters and other solar technologies through their paces, it shared.

New location comes with space to evaluate test results more quickly and precisely for solar PV modules and compare laboratory measurements with analysis on the test field. According to the institute, in combination with simulations based on solar radiation data, PV modules can be characterized much faster than was previously the case after a year of outdoor measurements.

“For PV modules, this means that we can compare analysis results from maritime, arid and our moderate Central European climate with measurements from our accredited indoor test labs,” said Project Manager of the test field in Merdingen, Dr Christian Reise.

Part of the test field is devoted to investigating integrated PV technologies by setting up different versions of a PV noise protection wall to check for electricity generation and noise protection function under PVwins project. Since the infrastructure will still be available post the research project completion, Fraunhofer says in this way construction projects can be checked on a small scale before a final variant is rolled out in the market.

Another part of the land will be used to test agrivoltaic systems for which construction will start on various height-adjustable systems. It is aimed at generating analysis on the extent of elevation for ground mounted, vertical and other agri-PV models.

“The new outdoor performance test field in Merdingen gives us the space to test a wide variety of solar technologies with the latest measurement technology in the open air,” explained Institute Director at Fraunhofer ISE, Prof Dr Andreas Bett. “We’re using this to gather important insights so that we can make them even better and more reliable.”