Hello,

i would like to simulate and plan a several MW PV Plant in PVSol, is that convenient/possible? Anyone of you did so?

How was the outcome/experiences?

I want to plan my first solar park (several MW), but i dont really want to spend severl thousands of euro into a programm like Helios3D or similar. PVSol is way cheaper, so is it a acceptable way to plan with it?

Best regards, JO

Hello Jo,

[this is a translated version of my German answer]

I am aware that you are probably hoping for feedback from other planners, but here is my (preferably neutral) assessment of the topic of large PV plants in PV*SOL.

In my answer I would like to distinguish between the 3D mode in PV*SOL and the non-3D mode (manual planning). In both cases there are detailed results on electrical and economic aspects of the system, configurable circuit diagrams and much more.

 

3D Mode

+ Very good visualization of the system (any module tables can be configured, surrounding shading objects, horizon line etc)

+ very powerful shading simulation (row-to-row shading, electrical influence of shadows down to module substring level)

+ Clear visualization and editing function for the electrical wiring

+ configuration/string plans

- Limitation to 7500 modules (equals to about 2.3 MW at 300 W per module)

- No cable diagram for mounted systems

 

2D mode

+ unlimited number of modules and module areas

+ shorter simulation times

- No detailed calculation of shading (shading values can only be entered as a percentage, but the horizon line works)

- Wiring is not as clearly displayed as in 3D

 

So much for my pro/con list. I am curious what the other users say.

 

As far as the limitation of the number of modules in 3D is concerned, a feasible work-around (which we know many users also use) would be to divide the system into several individual systems and then plan them separately.

You can also use 3D planning to determine the reduction in yield due to shading using an example plant, and then transfer this as a percentage value into the 2D planning.

 

I hope that this helps for the time being, best regards,

Martin

 

ps: PV*SOL is available free of charge for 30 days with a full range of functions for testing, so just give it a try

 

Hello

From my expireance and how i work is that for utiliy project (more then 3 MW) i'm using PVSyst ...less then that PVSOL

the 2D mode is very weak to handeling big project-my opinion

 

Thanks