Improvements to PVWatts for Fixed and One-Axis Tracking Systems

Conference · Wed Jun 26 00:00:00 EDT 2019

OSTI ID:1530710

Dobos, Aron P. ^[1]; Freeman, Janine M ^[2]; Blair, Nathan J ^[2]

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1. Envision Digital Corporation
2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

This work presents improvements to the widely used NREL PVWatts photovoltaic system energy model to improve modeling accuracy for typical fixed and one axis system designs. These improvements allow users to more credibly and quickly evaluate competing system designs in early stage feasibility, and are shown to improve PVWatts' system performance prediction capabilities without major impact to ease of use.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1530710
• Report Number(s): NREL/PO-6A20-74213
• Resource Relation: Conference: Presented at the IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 16-21 June 2019, Chicago, Illinois
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
PVWatts
system energy model
early stage feasibility
quick analysis
open source code