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Note about the PHOTON simulation software survey - 2011 (English)
Note sur le comparatif de programmes de simulation PV de PHOTON (French)

André Mermoud, University of Geneva, June 2011
The PHOTON laboratory has analyzed and tested about 20 softwares available on the market for the study of PV system yields. This analysis was published in several editions of PHOTON Magazine (that are in German and Spanish see April 2011, in Italian and French see May 2011).

PHOTON has used 3 monitored PV installations for the assessment of the yield prediction of each program. Yet we found that the reference irradiance data were not well measured, and this casts doubt on PHOTON's conclusions.
Note on the sensors’ calibration at three sites in Northern Germany used for Photon Magazine’s comparison of photovoltaic simulation softwares

Pierre Ineichen, University of Geneva, May 2011
We measured and carefully analyzed a 10 kW installation of amorphous modules. However, the document is only available in French: "Installation Photovoltaïque de l'Ecode d'Aïre: Analyse des données de fonctionnement, comparaisons avec le logiciel PVsyst", André Mermoud (University of Geneva) and Richard Durot (ZAG Solar), February 2009.