Abstract. Environmental testing following the draft of the IEC62817 standard has been carried out at ISFOC using a Soitec Solar tracker drive. The objective of this work is twofold; first to assure that the tracker design can perform under varying conditions and survive under extreme conditions and secondly to test the viability and usefulness of the tests described in the standard. After some changes in the device under test (specifically, gear-box oil) the drive system produced satisfactory results, assuring its performance under operational temperatures. Therefore, this work has demonstrated that the tests described in the standard are useful for detecting early failures.

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This paper presents the results obtained in the analysis of soiling effects in the energy production of CPV systems placed in desert areas (Abu Dhabi). These results are compared with the ones obtained from similar systems placed in continental climate areas, as it is the center of Spain at ISFOC headquarters. While the reduction in the energy generation because of soiling accumulation was less than a 10% at ISFOC, at Abu Dhabi it seems that it can reach values of 80% relatively fast, therefore a good cleaning policy becomes mandatory in climatic areas like Abu Dhabi.

Abstract. This paper covers the adaptation and experimental verification that has been carried out to the Helios 3198 solar simulator to use it in the characterization of a LCPV prototype. The challenge is to deal with the diffuse light that can distort the measurement of a LCPV prototype because of the larger acceptance angle. A deflector chamber for the flash lamp has been designed and implemented to capture this diffuse light. The experimental verification has proven the reliability of the solution, demonstrating that the inclusion of this element in the equipment is not modifying the spatial uniformity and the angular distribution of the light at the receiver plane. Therefore, this work demonstrates that the Helios 3198 solar simulator, including a deflector chamber for the lamp, can be used for the characterization of a LCPV prototype.

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