PHOTON module yield measurement 2013: Average module Performance Ratio on the rise

Over the past 8 years, PHOTON Laboratory has been monitoring an increasingly large number of solar modules on a shade-free area of land near Aachen, Germany. The measurements refer to the yield expressed in kilowatt-hours related to the power of the modules. These measurements are used to create a so-called Performance Ratio, a parameter for the yield of each solar module. The results of PHOTON Yield measurement 2013 show that solar modules are improving. Among the 151 different solar modules tested by PHOTON Laboratory GmbH, there are 33 newcomers that were added to the long-term test in the year 2012/2013. The top new module of 2013 was the SR-190 monocrystalline module from Chinese producer Sopray Energy, which reached a performance ratio of 94.0%. In 2013, the average Performance Ratio reached 91.5%, a new record, while the 10 best newcomers are looking at an average of 93.3%. In 2012, the average for the newcomers stood at 90.0% – this included highly efficient modules from US-manufacturer SunPower, which achieved an unprecedented value of 95.2 percent. Excluding the SunPower modules, the average value for the newcomers in 2012 was only 89.9 percent. In 2011, the average value achieved by newcomers came to 87.7%, while the average value for 2010’s newcomers reached 86.6 percent. Considering this, module producers managed to improve the yield of their modules by 4.9 percent within the last 3 years.
»Using modern solar modules leads to far better yields than 1 or 2 years before,« Anne Kreutzmann, CEO of PHOTON Publishing GmbH stated. This fact should be taken into account when making revenue calculations: »Far too often, revenue calculations start with yields that are too low because they refer to average yields from 3 or 4 years ago.«
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