Results of Black & Veatch’s review of pvDesign versus PVsyst
Black & Veatch Management Consulting issued an independent review of RatedPower’s pvDesign software. The independent review focused on two main areas:
- A conceptual level benchmark analysis of pvDesign and PVsyst on four separate design/technology cases.
- A high-level review of pvDesign’s energy production estimation algorithms.
How’d it go? With regards to the benchmark analysis, BV compared pvDesign and PVsyst simulation results for four different cases modeling power plants that had DC capacities of approximately 100 MWdc. These cases include fixed-tilt and single-axis tracker configurations and monofacial and bifacial modules deployed in Germany, Texas and Spain. The differences between the energy injected into the grid computed by pvDesign and PVsyst ranged from 0.07 to 1.08%. pvDesign’s estimates were consistently higher.
On the other hand, BV reviewed two of the major algorithms implemented in pvDesign – the computations of solar position angle and the irradiance received on the back face of a bifacial module for technical accuracy. These algorithms were also compared to the ones used in PVsyst. BV believes that both algorithms follow the same general approach in pvDesign and PVsyst and conform with standard industry practice.
“We had internally compared our energy model against PVsystand we knew we were close. BV has helped us validate our previous work and provided further credibility to our energy estimates” said Mario Benneckers, Product Manager at RatedPower.
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