developer_mh

Hi Marc, thank you for sending the project. In my case I was able to go into 3D, configure the modules, change the configuration a bit, go back, calculate the shadows and then simulate the whole system without a problem. RAM usage was moderate, also during autosave. The highest peak was around 900 MB. Could you describe in which situations the program crashes? Also, I realized that PV*SOL is using my GPU a lot during the shading calculations. Perhaps you have a dedicated GPU in your computer as well? If so, try configuring PV*SOL to use the better GPU, like so (example is for NVIDIA, but I guess for other manufacturers it is similar): Kind regards, Martin

Hi, thank you for sending the project. The problem here is that in winter the consumption is way too high compared to the PV production. In January for example you have a consumption of around 250 kWh, but the PV production is only around 70 kWh. This won't work. In order to be able to simulate and see how much consumption you can cover in which month, just set the check box for "Load Shedding" below the list of appliances: Then you'll be able to simulate and see the results. The loads will always be switched off when there is not enough PV power. Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin

Hi Marc, if you didn't receive an email with a reference number, the error was thrown in the 3D environment. But I found the error in our logs (ref nr. 0178262, just for me to remember). The problem here is really that the process is out of memory. PV*SOL is a 32bit process which means that there is a limit of around 1.3 GB of RAM. If you send me the project I could have a look if there is a possibility somewhere to save memory (by private message please). Kind regards, Martin

Hello, can you clarify what the problem is? Are you not able to choose a battery inverter and batteries or do you get simulation errors afterwards? If possible, send us your project (by private message here in the forum), so we can have a look. Kind regards, Martin

Hi Marc, PV systems in 3D of this size can cause heavy load on the computer. Did you already send us a crash report? If so, could you provide a reference number? We could then have a look into the error and see what is happening. Kind regards, Martin

Hi David, this is correct, the power optimizers in PV*SOL only have one MPP tracker. The SolarEdge M2640 has four. So there is no "clean" way to enter it. As a workaround you could either enter it as PV inverter with four MPP trackers, and with the DC/AC values of the PV inverter you want to connect. So that you'll have a device that combines the M2640 and the PV inverter. The other way would be to enter it as power optimizer with only one MPP tracker, and take into account that you'll lose the simulation accuracy. If you don't have difficult shading situations on the roof, you could go this way. Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin

Hi Himanshu, if you want to compare two PV plant designs, I would recommend the project comparison: https://help.valentin-software.com/pvsol/2020/project-comparison/ Kind regards, Martin

Hi Ricardo, thanks for the project. These are two different module types and if you select all of them, the generator power is calculated from the total number of modules and the lower of the two module powers. This only affects the display, however, the correct generator power will be displayed during interconnection and after exiting 3D. But I will set the issue on our list as it can easily confuse. Thanks for reporting! Kind regards, Martin

Hi Ricardo, thank you for reporting this with such illustrative pictures, this will make it easier for us to locate the problem. Would it be possible for you to send us the project where that happens? You can send it by private message here in the forum. Thanks, and kind regards, Martin

Hello Niclas, in the results section there is a diagram that shows the PV yield over the complete observation period, taking into account the module degradation: Hope that helps, kidn regards, Martin

Hi Daniel, most probably the down regulation on account of the max AC power is due to the sizing factor, yes. In general, those losses increase with an increasing sizing factor. Also be sure to simulate those losses in 1min resolution. In 1h time steps this effect can't be simulated realistically. But if you want, you can send over a project so that we can have a look in detail. Kind regards, Martin

Hi Daniel, if you are missing the values at low light conditions, you can choose the standard low light behaviour. In most of the cases we will then use the two-diodes model internally. We also have the pan file support on our list in order to make it possible to import pan files in the future, but for now I can't give a date for that. Kind regards, Martin

Hey Reint, on the results page there is the diagram editor. Select the data series you want to see and click 'ok': Kind regards, Martin

Hallo mlo, ja, die Ertragsverluste unterscheiden sich schon je nach Montage und Einbausituation. Könntest du uns die vergleichenden Projektdateien zur Verfügung stellen, dann können wir das besser nachvollziehen. Gerne als private Nachricht hier im Forum. Danke und viele Grüße, Martin

Hi Holm, I am glad you found out! If you need further assistance, please let us know! See also our help pages here: https://help.valentin-software.com/pvsol/en/ Best wishes, kind regards, Martin

Hi Paul, thank you for the schematics! Are the electrical loads connected to the grid directly, that is, after the voltage stabilizer? I see that the MPPTs are connected directly to the batteries? Is it possible with this setup, that the PV is directly covering the loads? And, last question: Do you primarily intend to analyse the grid connected case or the offgrid case? Kind regards, Martin

Hi Photovoltaique83, thank you for the input. Do you have special solar carports in mind? Can you give examples of manufacturers? The idea of virtual storage tariffs is great, we also have some providers here in Germany. We definetely have that on our list, as this topic will be increasingly important in the future. Thank you for pointing us out on the providers in France! Kind regards, Martin

Hi Rick, there is no out-of-the-box solution for designing DC-only systems in PV*SOL right now, I am afraid. One possible solution would be to interpret the AC mains as your DC bus, set the voltage to your DC voltage (12 or 24 or 48 V or so), and interpret the PV inverters as DC/DC converters. It will work, and energetically the errors that you'll make are small. It is not the nicest solution, I know, but it will work. If you are not connected to the grid, you will have to choose a stand-alone (offgrid) system type in PV*SOL: https://help.valentin-software.com/pvsol/2020/pages/system-type-climate-and-grid/ Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin

Hi SPS, there is a feature called maximum power clipping, in the "AC mains" dialog on the page "System type, climate and grid". The value is given in percent. You want to limit the power to 24 kW AC and you have 39,68 kWp installed on the DC side, so your value will be 60 %. Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin

Hi Reint, thanks for the data. I imported the data as is into PV*SOL, simulated and then had a look in the diagram editor at the series "irradiance onto horizontal plane" and "height of sun". These must be synchronous. So I searched for a clear sky day, like 24.06.: As you can see, the two series are out of sync. This means the timestamp of the PVGIS has to be changed prior to the import in PV*SOL. Here, the solar irradiance seems to be araound one hour earlier than the height of sun, so we have to shift all PVGIS values one hour behind. In order to achieve that, I cut the last line of the PVGIS data and pasted it before the first line. Maastricht p1 50.5024,-5.3849,81,-1,-30 Ta Gh FF RH 0.32 0.0 3.03 96.82 //this was the last line before 0.14 0.0 3.1 96.37 -0.04 0.0 3.17 95.91 -0.22 0.0 3.25 95.45 -0.4 0.0 3.32 94.99 -0.58 0.0 3.39 94.53 -0.76 0.0 3.46 94.07 -0.93 0.0 3.53 93.61 -1.11 0.0 3.6 93.15 0.12 20.0 4.68 91.4 1.06 120.0 4.88 88.26 ... Imported and simulated, it looks like this: So, now the irradiance seems to be slightly too late. Let us revert these changes and try with a 30 min shift. If you want to shift the data by 30min, you'll have to use excel to calculate the new values: Imported and simulated the new data give this picture: That is closer, but still there is a clear offset. So let's try to shift the values by 45min. Here we go: There is still as small offset, I would say, but it is ok now. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on the timestamp on the PVGIS website. In PV*SOL we use the same time stamp as in Meteonorm (where we get most of our climate data from). That is, January 01, 14:00 refers to the time range between 13:01 and 14:00. I attached the new climate data file, so you can import it yourself and see how the results look. Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin Maastricht 2007-2016 45min.dat

Hi Bengt, we are excited to hear that you are working on a report comparing different software solutions for PV! We hope that you can share your findings afterwards The relative humidity is currently not used in our models for the module temperature. If you have any further questions on the modelling or other parts of the software, please don't hesitate to ask! Kind regards, Martin

Hi Reint, that is very interesting! Could you provide the PVGIS data for Maastricht, please? A first guess would be that the timestamp might be wrong, so that the calculated elevation of the sun doesn't fit to the solar irradiance data. Kind regards, Martin

Hi Paul, in PV*SOL we have PV inverters (that cover roughly the functionality of MPP tracking and DC/AC conversion), ongrid battery systems (that cover the functionality of charging and discharging batteries and can be coupled to the system by AC coupling, DC intermediate coupling or DC generator coupling), and offgrid battery systems. So, in the case of Victron, we would have to choose if we want to analyse the ongrid or the offgrid case (both is not possible at the moment). In the ongrid case, we would enter the MPPT 250/100 as PV inverter and the Victron Quattro 15 kVA as battery system, although I am not sure how the connection of these devices is handled. Where do you connect the MPPT to the Quattro? Can you draw a circuit with both devices and PV, batteries and grid? Kind regards, Martin

Hi Lukasz, the AC mains options can be changed on the page "System type, climate and grid", see our help pages for reference: https://help.valentin-software.com/pvsol/2020/pages/system-type-climate-and-grid/#ac-mains If you want to change a one-phase inverter to a three-phase inverter, you would have to create a copy of the inverter in the database and edit it accordingly. https://help.valentin-software.com/pvsol/2020/databases/components/inverters/ Hope that helps, kind regards, Martin

Hi patrik, thank you for your feedback. We have this feature on our list already. We understand that it would really be helpful to be able to save the mounting systems for the next project. Kind regards, Martin