pv magazine Test: August 2025 Results
By George Touloupas and Huatian Xu
This article was originally published in pv magazine – October 2025 edition. Learn more about the pv magazine test here.
George Touloupas, Vice President of ESG and New Services at Intertek CEA, and Huatian Xu, Director of Technology and Quality, analyze the August 2025 results from the pv magazine test outdoor installations in Yinchuan, China, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The test field in Yinchuan, China, underwent extensive upgrades in July to improve the accuracy and quality of data, and we restarted in August. Due to monitoring system malfunctions, we did not acquire data on Aug. 14.
We also report the second month of outdoor data from the test installation in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, alongside the updated results from Yinchuan. High temperatures and high irradiance conditions at this site remain unchanged.
Monthly highlights
In August, temperatures at the Yinchuan site decreased and there were more low-irradiance days than in July. Certain products improved their performance, such as the two Astronergy modules, and the JA and SEG panels, which climbed back to the top rank.
Figure 1: Daily meteo station data from Yinchuan and Dammam for August 2025
After months of operation, it is exciting to observe the dynamic, “competitive” behavior of products, as time passes and as the weather changes.
Astronergy, JA, Runergy, and SEG all had products in the top rank for more than half the time, while AE’s new product has led since its installation in June. It should be pointed out that not only can the well-known, top-tier suppliers perform well, but also other lesser-known suppliers. Further observation and comparison of more high-efficiency products is needed to understand their behavior, and we look forward to more suppliers joining the test fields in Yinchuan and Saudi Arabia.
The performance of the two products installed in Dammam, meanwhile, showed no change, which is also supported by the unchanged prevailing weather conditions. Although these products have a similar ranking difference in Yinchuan (top rank for SEG and second rank for Astronergy) the specific energy yield gap is bigger in Dammam. Longer observation time under different conditions is needed to draw conclusions on what causes these differences.
Table 1: Specific energy yield rankings from Dammam and Yinchuan, July to August 2025
Figure 2: Specific energy yield of modules Yinchuan and Dammam, August 2025
