An apparatus including a white light and first, second, and third filters through which the white light is transmitted is utilized to sequentially irradiate a solar cell. The light impinging upon the solar cell from the first, second, and third filters has first, second, and third "tristimulus" distributions. The resulting first, second, and third electrical output quantities produced by the solar cell are measured and utilized to compute normalized spectral response coefficients by normalizing each of the electrical output quantities with respect to the sum of the three. First, second, and third response differences are obtained by subtracting the first, second, and third response coefficients from first, second and third response coefficients previously obtained from a reference solar cell. A spectral response mismatch coefficient equal to the square root of the squares of the three response differences is computed and utilized as a measure of the spectral response mismatch between the solar cell and the reference solar cell. On the basis of such computed spectral response mismatch coefficients, solar cells are grouped in ranges that are sufficiently closely matched to be optimally interconnected in individual solar modules. The technique can also be utilized to determine the spectral response of photovoltaic modules in terms of a tristimulus distribution, and the mismatch coefficient between the module and a solar cell and/or another module.
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