Measuring voltage–current and voltage–power curves of a photovoltaic module is a nice experiment for
high school and undergraduate students. In labs where real sunlight is not available this experiment
requires a solar simulator. A prototype of a simulator using LED lamps has been manufactured and
tested, and a comparison with classical halogen simulators has been performed. It is found that LED
light offers lower levels of irradiance, but much better performance in terms of module output for a
given irradiance.