IEC TS 61836:2025
(Main)Solar photovoltaic energy systems - Terms, definitions and symbols
Solar photovoltaic energy systems - Terms, definitions and symbols
IEC TS 61836:2025 covers solar photovoltaic (PV) terminology, definitions and symbols used in IEC TC 82 international standards.
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IEC TS 61836 ®
Edition 4.0 2025-11
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Solar photovoltaic energy systems - Terms, definitions and symbols
ICS 27.160 ISBN 978-2-8327-0745-6
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 2
INTRODUCTION . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms, definitions and symbols. 5
3.1 Photovoltaic cells and modules . 5
3.2 Other components . 12
3.3 Photovoltaic systems . 13
3.4 Performance parameters . 15
3.5 Measurement and testing . 17
3.6 Environmental parameters . 18
Index of terms and symbols . 20
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
Solar photovoltaic energy systems -
Terms, definitions and symbols
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
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IEC TS 61836 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 82 Solar photovoltaic energy
systems. It is a Technical Specification.
This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition published in 2016. It constitutes a
technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) Only the basic and essential terms to be included in the IEV have been selected and defined.
The text of this Technical Specification is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
82/2446/DTS 82/2513/RVDTS
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Specification is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
– reconfirmed,
– withdrawn, or
– revised.
INTRODUCTION
Since 1987, IEC TC 82 has developed international standards in the field of photovoltaic
systems to facilitate communication between experts from IEC and ISO technical committees,
industrialists and users of PV technology. The first three editions of IEC TS 61836 have brought
together the terms and definitions of the photovoltaic IEC international standards.
In 2018 the IEC TC 82 plenary meeting decided to publish the basic PV vocabulary in IEC 60050
International Electrotechnical Vocabulary and thus make the terms and definitions available
online to a wider audience including governmental, non-governmental organizations and the
international scientific and technical press.
IEC TC 82 selected 115 basic terms from more than 500 available terms to date. As only a few
terms relating to photovoltaics are currently listed in the IEV, it was decided by IEC TC 82, TC 1
Terminology and IEC Central Office to introduce in the IEV a new section 'Solar photovoltaics'
with the selected terms.
IEC TC 82 drafted the definitions according to the recommendations of Annex SJ Rules for
terminology work of the ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement:2024.
The terms are listed alphabetically in six categories:
– photovoltaic cells and modules;
– other components;
– photovoltaic systems;
– performance parameters;
– measurement and testing;
– environmental parameters.
1 Scope
IEC TS 61836 covers solar photovoltaic (PV) terminology, definitions and symbols used in
IEC TC 82 international standards.
Edition 4 of IEC TS 61836 presents a selection of basic PV terms and definitions intended for
inclusion in the multilingual online International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV) in
collaboration with IEC TC 1 and IEC Central Office.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms, definitions and symbols
3.1 Photovoltaic cells and modules
3.1.1
active photovoltaic cell area
active PV cell area
part of the cell area designed to receive solar radiation
Note 1 to entry: Active PV cell area does not include the metallisation lines.
3.1.2
active photovoltaic module area
active PV module area
part of the total module area designed to receive solar radiation for the generation of electric
power
Note 1 to entry: Active PV module area equals the sum of the total cell area in the module.
3.1.3
amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell
a-Si photovoltaic cell
photovoltaic cell fabricated from thin layers of hydrogenated amorphous silicon as the active
photovoltaic material deposited on a foreign substrate
Note 1 to entry: Also referenced as a thin-film amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell.
Note 2 to entry: Variants of thin-film amorphous silicon include microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si), etc.
3.1.4
amorphous silicon photovoltaic module
photovoltaic module manufactured with amorphous silicon photovoltaic cells
Note 1 to entry: Also referenced as a thin-film amorphous silicon photovoltaic module.
3.1.5
anti-reflective coating
layer formed on the surface of a photovoltaic cell or the frontsheet of a photovoltaic module to
reduce solar radiation reflectance
3.1.6
backsheet
photovoltaic backsheet
sheet made of one or more layers that constitute the back of a
photovoltaic module
Note 1 to entry: The backsheet provides environmental protection and electrical insulation of the encapsulated
photovoltaic cells and circuitry.
3.1.7
back-surface field effect
BSF effect
effect where the charge carriers generated near the back side of a photovoltaic cell are collected
effectively by the inner electric field that is formed by a heavily doped zone near the rear
electrode
3.1.8
bifacial photovoltaic cell
bifacial PV cell
photovoltaic cell which allows the use of incident light from both front and rear sides
3.1.9
bifacial photovoltaic module
bifacial PV module
photovoltaic module which allows the use of incident light from both front and rear sides
3.1.10
building-integrated photovoltaic module
BIPV module
photovoltaic module that provides one or more functions of the building envelope
Note 1 to entry: If a building-integrated photovoltaic module is uninstalled, it shall be replaced by an appropriate
construction product.
3.1.11
building-integrated photovoltaics
BIPV
branch of science and technology pertaining to photovoltaic modules and arrays providing one
or more functions of the building envelope
3.1.12
busbar
metallisation line which interconnects gridlines of a photovoltaic cell
3.1.13
bypass diode
diode connected in parallel with one or more photovoltaic cells in a
photovoltaic module in the forward current direction to prevent hot spots and reduce power
losses from shaded or damaged cells
3.1.14
cadmium telluride photovoltaic cell
CdTe photovoltaic cell
CdTe cell
photovoltaic cell fabricated from thin layers of cad
...
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