2018 looks to be another booming year for installed solar power sites around the world. In addition to traditional major markets in Europe, China, and the United States, emerging countries in the Americas and Middle East look to big movers as the install larger projects. As solar power plants have increased in size and numbers, new standards were needed to help a fast-changing industry. During 2017, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) released a new standard, 61724-1, Photovoltaic system performance – Part 1: Monitoring. The standard provides guidance as to the measurements needed to attain a specific level or classification of accuracy. The standard provides all the details as to when and how to measure the critical environmental parameters. It also provides information on the differences in requirements based on installation size and power generating technologies and methods. Only considering the most common form of power generation, non-concentrating photovoltaic (PV) installations, the standard provides 3 classifications or levels of accuracy.

This new standard will provide crucial guidance to various stake holders as to what measurements are needed. Couple this information with EKO’s 90 years of intense development and you have the right combination to make certain any PV site is monitoring at the optimal level. For the highest level of performance, EKO recommends using the MS-80 series pyranometer with the MV-01 heated ventilator. The MS-80 surpasses the requirements of ISO 9060 and sets a new bar for pyranometer performance. While the IEC standard calls for recalibration annually, the MS-80 has a 5 year recommended recalibration interval. The MS-80 has been designed such that the user does not need to change the desiccant. As for performance, the MS-80 has fastest response time of any secondary standard on the market. It also is immune to thermal offsets, monitoring with the MS-80 provides greater confidence in measurement accuracy as well as the ability to detect fast changes in irradiance with passing clouds.

With a global presence and a persistent drive to improve solar radiation measurements, EKO stands ready to help the solar energy industry with any project, regardless of size or complexity. Please contact your local or regional EKO Instruments office.

Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency in Thailand adopted the MS-700 spectroradiometer for their research. EKO is a leading manufacturer of spectroradiometer for outdoor measurements. Our spectroradiometers are well accepted for research and well known as a standard instrument to measure solar radiation.

Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) in Thailand have installed our spectroradiometers MS-700, on 23 observation stations nationwide in Thailand. The system integration and installation were completed perfectly by our partner, Campbell Scientific Southeast Asia, in Thailand.

The spectroradiometers will be utilized for:

• Early Warning Crop Disease Forecast
• Agrometeorology
• Ground-Truthing Satellite Imagery

Wath for more information about the project through the link https://www.gistda.or.th/main/en/node/265

The MS-90 sensor measures the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) without the need for a sun-tracker. It is a reinvention of the MS-093 sunshine duration meter which is a reliable and accurate sunshine duration meter deployed within the AMeDaS network in Japan for over 10 years. More than 800 stations gather precise sunshine duration information every day. The MS-90 is a cost effective solution to be applied in solar energy monitoring systems and meteorological networks.

EKO added a new Si-pyranometer to the range. The ML-02 is the smallest irradiance sensor designed for measurement applications which require a small mechanical footprint and low weight. The sensor can be used on drones, UAV's, balloon sonds, renewable industry where efficient energy supply systems will be integrated to building facades, automotive and wearables. Built a cost effective PV rooftop monitoring system in combination with the ML-02, M-box (Modbus®) and PT-100 temperature sensor.  

We provide different mounting options to easily integrate the sensor. The ML-02 detector with high analog output and can be combined with our industrial interfaces MC-11, MC-20, A-box and M-box. The sensor has 2 years warranty and calibration compliant to the international standards defined by ISO9847. 

New and improved cost effective design recommended for standard global radiation measurements. Three different models are available, all fully compliant with ISO 9060 standards for First Class pyranometers. The compact sensor with double dome surpresses offsets and easily integrates all value added features such as a ventilator, heater and different industrial interfaces.