Solar Field

Welcome to the AMOLF solar field located in Science Park, Amsterdam. Established in 2016, this project brings current photovoltaic technology to the forefront of AMOLF research and to the Amsterdam public.

Solar Test Field at AMOLF


What is the AMOLF Solar Field?

At AMOLF, we collect data on the performance of six types of commercially available solar panels, each with their own unique characteristics:

  1. Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS), a flexible module; nominal efficiency 12.7% specs
  2. Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), a lower cost module; nominal efficiency 12.0% specs
  3. Polycrystalline Silicon (Poly-Si), the most commonly used technology; nominal efficiency 15.5% specs
  4. Interdigitated Back Contact monocrystalline silicon, charge extraction located at the back of the cell; nominal efficiency 21.5% specs
  5. Heterojunction Intrinsic Layer Monocrystalline Silicon (HIT Si), highest lab-tested efficiency; nominal efficiency 19.4% specs
  6. Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) with reflective backing; nominal efficiency 14.7% specs

In addition to monitoring the power, current, module temperature, and other parameters from the solar panels themselves, AMOLF also has a weather station plus a solar spectrometer and pyranometer to measure incoming solar radiation.

Completed projects


What are we using it for?

Data in three forms (weather, solar radiation, module parameters) are collected every five minutes and stored on internal servers. Researchers at AMOLF investigate the behaviour of these panels, and we are also opening up this raw data for public use (see download link below). Available Data:1. Weather
• Average temperature (oC)
• Dewpoint (oC)
• Humidity (%)
• Air pressure (hPA)
• Air density (kg/m3)
• Wind speed (km/h)
• Wind direction (o)
• Wind measurement quality (%)2. Solar radiation
• Sensor temperature
• Wavelength (nm)
• Irradiance (W/m2/µm)3. Module Parameters (for each of the six panel types)
• Voltage at maximum power point (mpp) (V)
• Current at mpp (A)
• Power at mpp (W)
• Open circuit voltave (Voc) (V)
• Closed circuit current (Isc) (A)
• Fill factor (%)
• G temperature of pyranometer (oC)
• Module temperature (oC)
• G_pyranometer irradiance (W/m2)
• Voltage range (s/sec)
• Current range (s/sec)
• Scan rate

Download measured data: TBD

Creative Commons License
The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please acknowledge AMOLF when using the data.Disclaimer:
There are at times situational occurrences, such as construction, which affect the data collection. Therefore, while we attempt to note these events in our data uploads, we cannot guarantee that we note all possible effects or anomalies.