In this study copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaic (PV) modules were subjected to a thorough indoor assessment procedure. The assessment is to be used as a baseline for future evaluation of the modules deployed outdoors as part of an ongoing evaluation of device performance and degradation. The main focus of the study is the long term monitoring of the devices to determine service lifetime. In this paper we will present initial results of the baseline evaluation, namely I- V characteristics, thorough visual inspection and an analysis of performance parameters. The results obtained revealed that the performance of one of the modules was inferior to the others evaluated. In order to further investigate this, laser beam induced current (LBIC) measurements were conducted on regions that had a non-uniform appearance as observed visually. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.