Systems spreadsheet

[SolarCity]

I've been promising to release some data from our spreadsheet for a while now. Having given it some thought, I have decided not release it onto the main forum but I will send it to a few forum members for them to look at. It'll be interesting to see what others make of some of the figures/trends.

A couple of things we have noticed is that Fronius IG TL inverters (which we haven't used for ages) and Kostal Piko inverters are producing more than other inverters. Now, there isn't enough data to make conclusive verdicts on which inverters are better than others and the amount of different factors involved in solar pv generation makes analysis difficult. We do tend to use the Fronius and Kostal inverters on installs with zero shading.

Panels results appear to be showing good results for Panasonic/Sanyo and Linuo while Sharp still seem to be poorly producing. LG look like they're doing well also but we don't have enough data on those yet.

One thing which is conclusive is that PV*Sol shading analysis appears to be incredibly accurate.

I hope to finally getting round to polishing off the spreadsheet some time soon (removing addresses/prices/customers, making it easier to understand, removing junk info) and I'll get it sent out. It'll be interesting to see what others make of it.

 

[FB.]

How much better would you estimate the Sanyo/Panasonic to be?

And data from my system near Cambridge, if you want to add it to the mix:

ESE-facing 120 degrees (60 degrees worse than South, 30 degrees better than East).
40 degree pitch.
15x 250W = 3.75kWp Kinve KV250-60M (mono).
Two strings; 7+8 panels, all panels same pitch and azimuth.
No shading.
PowerOne Aurora PVI-3600-UK (indoor model, 16A capped).

Generation in calendar year 2012: 3300kWh (SAP-2009 estimate 2991)
Generation in calendar year 2013: 3400kWh

Performing about 10% above SAP in 2012 and 14% above SAP in 2013.

Also a split array of 2kWp North + 2kWp South = 4.0kWp Kinve; same panels and inverter as above with no shading. Performing similarly, above its SAP estimate by 10-15% in the last couple of years (SAP about 2800kWh, actual generation about 3100-3200 kWh)

 

[Ian-LS]

I've been working on the same thing but only got data for around 30-40 customers. Highest performing systems use StecaGrid inverters which isn't surprising given the high efficiency. We only use them in situations with none or little shading.

I (and GavinA) would be interested in sharing this data with us, if we can do the same with you?

 

[SolarCity]

Yeah, no probs. I'll definitely share it with a few of the members from this forum. It is a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet - has both our PV Sol predictions and SAP calcs compared to real world figures.