Since 2008, Chris Deline has been a research engineer at NREL and currently leads the Photovoltaic (PV) System Performance group. He manages the U.S. Department of Energy Regional Test Center program at NREL for field assessment of novel PV technologies and is principal investigator for multiple PV field performance projects including degradation rate assessment and bifacial module power rating and production modeling. Deline also manages the PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative, which works with commercial fleet owners to aggregate and analyze PV field performance data using novel data quality and performance analysis tools. 

Deline is an expert in the field performance of PV modules, particularly partially shaded or mismatched PV including distributed power electronics.  His research also includes characterization and energy simulation of advanced PV technologies including thin-film module metastability and bifacial system energy production.

Education

B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan

M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan

Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan

Featured Work

Selected Journal Articles

Estimating and Parameterizing Mismatch Power Loss in Bifacial Photovoltaic Systems, Progress in Photovoltaics (2020)

Bifacial_Radiance: A Python Package for Modeling Bifacial Solar Photovoltaic Systems, Journal of Open Source Software (2020)

PV Field Reliability Status—Analysis of 100,000 PV Systems, Progress in Photovoltaics (2020)

Model and Validation of Single-Axis Tracking with Bifacial PV, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (2018)

Assessment of Bifacial Photovoltaic Module Power Rating Methodologies—Inside and Out, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (2017)

Performance of Power-Limited Differential Power Processing Architectures in Mismatched PV Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (2015)

Selected Conference Publications and Technical Reports

PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative: Performance Index-Based Analysis, NREL Technical Report (2021)

Field-Aging Test Bed for Behind-the-Meter PV + Energy Storage, IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (2019)

Bifacial PV System Performance: Separating Fact from Fiction, IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, NREL Presentation (2019)