Sun Is The Future

Dear Friends, Visitors/Viewers/Readers,

(Please be sure to click on red links below)

Thanks to our friends from “Nebraskans For Solar“, I was reminded of a wonderful resource to be shared here with you all, below:

NREL PVWatts Renewable Resource Data Center:

PVWatts logo of NREL

NREL’s PVWattsTM calculator determines the energy production and cost savings of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, installers, manufacturers, and researchers to easily develop estimates of the performance of hypothetical PV installations.

The PVWatts calculator works by creating hour-by-hour performance simulations that provide estimated monthly and annual energy production in kilowatts and energy value. Users can select a location and choose to use default values or their own system parameters for size, electric cost, array type, tilt angle, and azimuth angle. In addition, the PVWatts calculator can provide hourly performance data for the selected location.

Using typical meteorological year weather data for the selected location, the PVWatts calculator determines the solar radiation incident of the PV array and the PV cell temperature for each hour of the year. The DC energy for each hour is calculated from the PV system DC rating and the incident solar radiation and then corrected for the PV cell temperature. The AC energy for each hour is calculated by multiplying the DC energy by the overall DC-to-AC derate factor and adjusting for inverter efficiency as a function of load. Hourly values of AC energy are then summed to calculate monthly and annual AC energy production.

The PVWatts calculator is available in two versions. Site Specific Data Calculator (Version 1) allows users to select a location from a map or text list of pre-determined locations throughout the world. Grid Data Calculator (Version 2) allows users to select any location in the United States.

The PVWatts calculator was developed by NREL’s Electricity, Resources, and Building Systems Integration Center.

Thanks to NREL’s PVWatts and Nebraskans For Solar, we will have a better chance in reaching a brighter tomorrow !

~have a bright and sunny day~

Gathered and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker

Any of your comments or suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com

Homepage: http://www.sunisthefuture.net

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Tags: and Building Systems Integration Center, calculator, electricity, grid data calculator, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Nebraskans for solar, NREL, PVWatts, Resources, site specific data calculator, solar, Sun Is The Future, sunisthefuture, sunisthefuture.net, susan sun nunamaker

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 4:58 PM and is filed under Educational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.