Online tools to size (autonomous) PV setup

[astronom]

Hi there,

As there are many tools that already exist to size autonomous PV installation, and that I came across some of them, I thought it would be nice to share them here. If anyone knows some others that are nice don't hesitate to add to the list. Maybe this thread could gather diverse online tools to help people size their installation.

• JRC tool from the European Commission (works for anywhere in the world)
  
  
  • Input your location and then in the "Off-grid" tab, the input your (planned) PV and battery setup and get results on how your setup would hold throughout the year. Typically you can get the proportion of days your battery will be full or empty, depending on the time of the year.
  • This tool can also be used for grid tied systems for which you want to estimate how much your PV setup will produce according to its orientation and location.

• CalcPvAutonome
  
  
  • Comprehensive tool that just asks you for your needs (daily consumption, peak power, days of autonomy, orientation of the panels) and outputs a fully detailed setup describing not only the amount of panels and battery needed but also how to wire them. It also suggests MPPT and inverter specs, even down to the wire diameters that should be used!
  • Nice explanations ("See, understand the procedure, the calculation" buttons) on how it gets to the result, great way to get to learn how to size your setup by yourself.
  • Not originally suited for lithium batteries (rather lead-acid) so beware about that: lithium can be discharged deeper than LA and can handle higher power peak, so some adjustments from you can be needed to the results regarding the battery.
  • Mother tong of the soft in French so not everything is translated but most of it is.

• Sunny Design from SMA (solar company)
  
  
  • Very comprehensive tool to size and installation that can also take generators into account for instance. It also verifies the compatibility of the separated items like if the battery will handle the maximum charging current or stuff like this. Gives you detailed stats to know whether the setup would fit your needs or not and what solutions can be found.
  • Big drawback is that you have to pick the MPPT/inverter in the list of SMA's products, but that does not hurt to simulate with an inverter with specs close to what you would like to install for instance.
  • Unlike the other tools before you have to create an account to use it. But in return they keep your simulation saved and you can come back to it whenever (I don't know what they do with the data otherwise...)

• Forkast
  
  
  • Neat little tool to predict the behaviour of an PV system, autonomous or not, with or without battery, based on meteo data. Beta version yet, and you have to create an account and a free site. It seems they also offer commercial services.
  • Can handle PV but also wind turbines. Although I don't know how accurate are these predictions, I feel that the production may be a bit overestimated. Only ground truth could confirm that, but as I won't have a PV setup before next Spring any feedback on that from people here would be great.
  • You can setup variable loads with hourly resolution. Sometimes a bit buggy though (it seems it cannot handle the week increment...)
  • Anyway a great tool to get a feeling of how a certain setup would behave in nice/bad weather before building it.

• MPPT calculator from Victron (solar company)
  
  
  • Very comprehensive Excel sheet that enables you to check that a certain configuration of PV modules would fit with a given MPPT.
  • Preloaded with Victron's PV modules and regulators specs but you totally can input your own items specs instead (unprotect the sheet to do that).

That's all for now, hope this can be helpful to some!

 

[Maast]

Nice!