The Photovoltaic Collaborative to Advance Multi-climate Performance and Energy Research, better known as PV CAMPER, recently elected Nelson Mandela University as its 14th member. The addition of the South Africa affiliate marks an important milestone for the global network of researchers and field laboratories, which now encompasses six continents and most major climate zones.
Led by Sandia, PV CAMPER conducts collaborative photovoltaic research to advance efficient technologies and ensure system reliability. Sandia researcher and PV CAMPER Chair Laurie Burnham said the group tackles emerging challenges, supports the development of advanced performance models and validates new technologies across different operating environments.
“The overall intent is to promote data- and information-sharing to increase the efficiency, reliability and availability of solar assets worldwide,” Laurie said. “Nelson Mandela University has the technical capabilities and resources to support PV CAMPER’s goals, and we are fortunate to have them.”
The Photovoltaics Research Group at Nelson Mandela University conducts research across the photovoltaics value chain, including advanced characterization, performance analysis, reliability studies and system optimization. The group also plays a leading role in supporting the growth and sustainability of the photovoltaics sector in South Africa and beyond through postgraduate training and industry collaboration. The Photovoltaics Research Group has a strong association with university spin-off company PVinsight in the field of accredited testing and on-site evaluation of photovoltaics modules deployed in plants.
Ernest van Dyk, professor of physics and Nelson Mandela University’s appointed representative to PV CAMPER, said, “Nelson Mandela University is honored to be elected as a member of PV CAMPER. This appointment recognizes our sustained commitment to PV research, innovation and human capital development, and we look forward to contributing meaningfully to collaborative initiatives that strengthen the global PV community.”
Laurie attributes Sandia’s leadership of this global institution to the Labs’ 50-plus years of pathbreaking solar-energy research and its state-of the-art
research and development facility, the Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory. The site occupies seven acres at Sandia and highlights U.S. ingenuity with more than 50 domestically manufactured photovoltaics systems, spanning both old and new technologies, generating data critical to the U.S. solar industry.
Scientific developments in the areas of system modeling and data analytics, as well as yield predictions, are hampered by the lack of publicly available, high-quality data. In addition, weather events, such as hurricanes and hail, call attention to the importance of cross-climate field studies to identify failure mechanisms, monitor the robustness of emerging technologies and make design and technological choices.
“Such demonstration data is especially vital, given the rapid technological diversification of the solar industry, such as new cell technologies, new material combinations and various module geometries combined with accelerating capacity worldwide,” Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory Director Bruce King said.
While not all PV CAMPER members can match the size and diversity of installations at the Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory, participating institutions must meet stringent technical requirements, including high-accuracy characterization and irradiance instrumentation, rigid data-quality standards, and strict operations and management protocols. In addition, members must participate in joint research activities, conference and workshop events, and meet as a group at least once a year. PV CAMPER is governed by an executive committee, which is elected every two years. In 2026, it includes the chair from the U.S., the vice chair from Germany, the director for research from Austria and director for outreach from Morocco.
Each member institution operates one or more field laboratories and is actively engaged in photovoltaics performance and reliability research, from experimentation to simulation and validation studies. As the organization matures, PV CAMPER looks forward to expanding its impact and to tackling these and other research challenges in such critical areas as measurement uncertainty, predictive modeling and the cross-climate reliability of emerging technologies.
Discover more about the collaborative’s photovoltaic work at PV CAMPER.