Solesca launches new software update with 3D terrain modeling
Commercial and community solar design platform Solesca has launched v2 of its proprietary software, which officials say is “the company’s biggest release to date.”
The new software update challenges the current assumptions of solar design software, which, according to Solesca, treat every site as a flat surface. The new release adds terrain tracking features — so solar project design layouts follow the natural slope of the land — as well as a new virtual 3D view for commercial and ground-mount projects.
“A lot of the expensive surprises on solar projects come from decisions made early with incomplete information,” says Solesca co-founder and CEO Sam Schierloh. “Terrain is one of the big ones. We’ve been working on v2 for more than two years, and it gives developers a much clearer picture of a site before they commit to it, which means less time and money spent on projects that were never going to work.”
The new software update also provides ease of use and quality of life changes for existing solar project terrain work. Normally done in the AutoCAD program, Solesca officials say this virtual work “takes years of experience to do well,” and also normally happens at the end of the process. Solesca v2 changes the math around that workflow.
Changing the process
The new software update from Solesca takes the solar terrain work and moves it to the start of the process. With v2, developers can see how terrain will affect a solar project layout while still evaluating the site itself.
Solesca v2 pulls terrain data from commercial elevation services, including government survey data, the company says. Developers will be able to see whether or not a project is going to work with certain elevation changes before ever sinking any sort of significant capital into the investment.
Additionally, the new 3D view will allow teams to explore the full design of a project on a realistic model of the site. Users can lay out ground-mount arrays on the site’s slope, as well as inspect rooftops, carports, and ground-mount solar arrays from any angle, simulating the sun’s position at any time of day.
Solesca’s original software went live in April 2023, with v2 marking the software’s first major upgrade in about three and a half years.
