Desert Knowledge Solar Centre
Federal Government Solar Power Testing
The importance of independent testing
Many solar power panels look very similar to each other and it's almost impossible for most people to tell a good quality solar panel apart from a poor quality panel. Independent testing is critical to confirm how well different solar panels work.
Central Australia is home to the $3 million Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre at the Desert Knowledge Precinct; the first site in Australia to publicly showcase such a broad range of large scale solar installations.
The centre was funded by the Federal Government to give the community a way to compare solar panels from different manufacturers.
The Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre in Alice Springs is one of the few completely independent testing facilities that publishes comparisons of different solar manufacturers compared to each other.
Example Graphs
The following comparisons are for Kyocera Solar systems versus other leading brands for June 2009. Higher is better - more power produced per day.
Navigating the site
- System comparison graphs - be sure to use click 'Normalised Output'
- Facility Map
- Kyocera Solar system info
- Gallery
Normalised Output
The Normalised Output of a solar power system is the daily power production (kWh) divided by the system size (kW). This allows an 'apples to apples' comparison of different systems.
Kyocera Solar performance
Kyocera Solar panels outperform all other crystalline silicon solar power panels at the Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre. They make more power per kilowatt.