SolarPlanner

The Solar Planner is an optimisation tool that automates and accelerates the entire planning process for high-level PV plants. Based on customer-defined parameters, the software simulates not one, but hundreds of different design options for a given site to find the best option.  It automatically creates CAD files with layout plans, wiring dimensions and cable routes and calculates, based on individual component prices, the overall EPC price as well as revenues over 25 years of operation, based on electricity price curves, within a few minutes.

• The software is a new generation of planning tools for PV plants, introducing a holistic model like no other, that includes a wide variety of technical and economic variables, enabling it to compare for example: different south facing plants with east-west setups and single axis trackers.
• It allows easy, fast and simple planning for simple plants as well as for plants with high complexity. It offers a high flexibility, if conditions suddenly change, just one adjustment, show again the new best solution in few minuntes.
• Looking for solutions between conflicting variables, it displays the whole solution spectrum in a clear and understandable context.
• The optimised solution reveals the best balance of the desired KPIs with high accuracy in record time.
• The autonomous generation of detailed CAD drawings includes electrical calculations and routing, automating several extremely time intensive processes.
• The reliable calculation basis is a self-developed mathematical model.

• The Solar Planner is creative in the way it calculates and presents solutions in context for decision making. The software balance conflicting technical and economic objectives by elaborating different alternatives with extreme complexity, each with its own balance of decision coefficients.
• It offers the full range of options, displaying them graphically and allowing them to be compared in terms of parameters and layout, making a well-founded decision possible.
• The results reach dimensions beyond what the human mind can achieve in the same time frame. The system clearly shows areas of tension between different parameters and revolutionises the out-of-the-box view of possibilities. This will accelerate and reinforce the search for new options in solar plant evaluation and construction.

Currently there is no software that can solve the complexity and variety of parameters and calculations included in the Solar Planner .

It integrates all technical and economic factors including the financial model. It can deliver solutions for highly complex plants. In addition, it is possible to autonomously generate detailed CAD drawings, including electrical calculations, wiring, and routing that serve as the basis for construction. It is able of displaying the complete range of solutions graphically and comprehensively at high speed. It also has the robustness of a self-developed mathematical model in cooperation with scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute. All in one.

The Solar Planner is definitely unique and cannot be compared to any other seemingly similar software:

• PVSyst is limited to the evaluation of an already planned plant, in particular in the light of the traces.
• AutoCAD drawings simplify planning, but do not offer any overall optimisation.
• Most suppliers usually offer a single solution that concentrates solely on performance simulation.

The tool provides the best system configuration within a broader spectrum of solutions, considering alternatives that might not be visible without this model. Standardises and automates the complete planning process. Saves time and efforts by freeing up engineering and financial consulting resources and maximises profitability by optimizing construction costs and reducing solar energy prices. It provides access to a more comprehensive, complex and educated decision base, thus accelerating the assessment, planning and construction processes. As the software performs complex calculations and integrates very flexible multiple variables, new technologies can in the future be combined more quickly and intelligently with photovoltaics, accelerating the deployment of optimized hybrid solar plants.

The use of this tool helps to speed up the overall process of building an efficient solar plant. It can help reduce planning, decision, and construction times. It optimises the use of all human, natural and material resources involved in the process and reduces costs, energy prices while maximising profits. It makes the total process more efficient and cost-effective and more attractive for investment. It makes complexity understandable for decisions makers, and this will provide a driving effect for this technology. It also lays a foundation for the integration of new technologies. 
The software illustrates the trade-off between maximizing the relative profit of one solar project with its absolute profit – thus aiding the decision process to add another module row or another inverter.

Furthermore, with the overall rise of renewable energies, producing electricity at certain times becomes more important than just producing electricity at any time. While PV plants will always depend on solar irradiation, there are design options that can produce different yield profile. The SolarPlanner can identify these designs, test their financial viability and thus help create a more robust, renewable energy system.