Modeling infrastructure along the value chain: From materials to system performance

This paper reports on progress towards the development of an infrastructure to integrate existing modelling tools, and thus allow modelling of the entire solar cell value chain, from initial material parameters to the long-term energy yield of complete PV systems. Currently, the infrastructure has been developed and successfully tested from the material to the system level, for three different cell technologies using 13 different programs across 7 European institutes. Input data can be either modelled or experimentally measured. Further work will focus on: comparison of the simulation results with experimentally measured system data; defining standard interface protocols to simplify the information transfer; and predicting the yearly energy output for installed PV systems.