Solar Performance Insight

The Solar Performance Insight is an open source tool to enable evaluations of solar power plant performance.

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Members of the solar community are invited to join the Stakeholder Committee to provide guidance on project development.

Project Goals

Our project will build a performance modeling and analytics platform based on open-source, extensible, community-maintained code. The project will benefit to the solar community through two primary outcomes:

  • Extending pvlib-python to easily model PV systems with greater detail.
  • Delivering modeling capabilities through a web-based dashboard and an API. We work directly with industry stakeholders to validate user stories, derive use cases and analytic requirements, and test the platform.

Project Background and Motivation

A common task in PV Operations and Maintenance (O&M) is to compare actual performance over a period of time with modeled performance. Available asset management platforms that provide performance analytics are often far larger in scope than many O&M contractors need or can be tied to proprietary data acquisition systems. These platforms can be unaffordable for O&M providers with smaller portfolios or impractical for portfolios with diverse data systems. Consequently, O&M service engineers typically adapt their workflows to the available modeling tools which are primarily designed to predict future performance, rather than model past performance.

Project News

We have published use cases to guide project development. The use cases were compiled from input from O&M providers, asset owners and managers, and other PV professionals during a special session of SAMNA North America (online, April 6-7, 2020) and from members of the Amicus O&M Cooperative. Priority use cases include:

  • Calculate performance from actual weather with user-selected performance models.
  • Compare actual and modeled performance using performance ratios.
  • Account for snow and soiling in performance models.

In the coming months, the project team will build out capabilities in the pvlib-python modeling library that support the use cases. The project team will also draft a business plan to ensure that the modeling services are available to the industry after the project period has ended.

Funding

See the funding page for more information on the project’s funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office.