Radiometric Standards and Best Practices: Recent Progress

Abstract

International standards and best practices for solar resource assessments provide assurance for traceable measurements associated with a low uncertainty. This benefits the solar energy industry by reducing the investment risks through heightened confidence in the solar resource information. NREL, in collaboration with international organizations, such as subcommittees G03 of ASTM (Radiometry) and TC180/SC1 of ISO (Climate measurement and data), recently revised some standards that are widely used by the solar industry. These include radiometric standards that assist in (i) maintaining calibration traceability; (ii) uncertainty analysis; (iii) measurement quality assurance, and (iv) establishing reference spectral irradiance distributions. The latter are widely used by the solar community to evaluate the actual absorptance, reflectance, and transmittance of solar energy materials, or the performance of solar energy devices and systems, relative to standard conditions. This paper provides a summary of the recent changes brought to these standards as a way to better support the solar energy industry.