The usage of renewable energies, especially, solar energy is increasing rapidly worldwide. As per the market research conducted, the growth of solar market has been increased by 1395 IN 2010.
In the future, large PV plants such as the Siemens solar farm that went into operation in 2011 in Le Mées, France, can be planned quickly and efficiently using the PVplanet software solution. Credit: Siemens AG
To construct a solar project, planning is very important. Engineers use CAD programs to design solar projects and each layout is designed meticulously, which is a time-consuming process. Further, if the plan has to be changed or improved, then the whole planning process has to be repeated.
To overcome this difficulty, scientists from Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM, Kaiserslautern and Siemens Energy Photovoltaics have developed a novel planning software to build solar projects in a quicker and better manner.
According to Dr. Ingmar Schüle, an ITWM researcher, the algorithms, which were specifically programmed for the Siemens PV Plant Engineering Toolbox, PVplanet, software offers numerous solar plant designs to the engineers by a single click in less than a minute.
Inputs including inverter and module types and construction site’s topography are enough for the software to generate different designs. In addition, the user can modify several parameters including inclination, orientation and spacing of the solar arrays to obtain an exact plan for the solar project.
Furthermore, a revenue calculation is conducted to assess the potential of the designed PV power plants. For instance, calculations such as the course of the sun for the whole year, the physical module performance like shading effects and a simulation of the weather in the construction region are performed. Hence, the planning tool can show the figure for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) using the design and calculations.
The software’s demonstration and celebration for its launch will be conducted at the Siemens booth in Hall B4, Booth B4.380 in the Intersolar Europe trade fair, Munich to be held on June 13-15, 2012.
Source: http://www.fraunhofer.de/
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