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Securing solar investments: strategies for world class performance and reliability

Published in: Solar, Digital Blog

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Securing Solar Investments Amid Climatic Risks

The growth of solar PV faces critical reliability challenges due to underperformance driven by environmental factors. PVRADAR empowers developers to achieve superior reliability from project inception, by integrating transparent, data-driven tools for risk management.

Why Climate Conditions Matter

As PV capacity surpasses 1 TWp globally, climate-related losses like soiling and snow accumulation threaten performance and ROI. Key issues include:

  • Unrealistic loss assumptions during development lead to performance gaps.
  • Soiling can cause billions in global losses, yet remains poorly addressed.
  • Snow buildup reduces energy output and stresses PV infrastructure.

Data-Led Risk Identification & Cleaning Strategy

PVRADAR enables early detection of soiling risks and supports informed cleaning strategies. Its approach includes:

  • Using satellite data and models to estimate historical and site-specific soiling.
  • Tailoring cleaning plans with autonomous systems and cost-benefit analyses.
  • Emphasizing cleaning as an investment, not a fixed operational task.

Technology-Driven Modelling for Hard Soiling

Hard soiling, resistant to natural cleaning like rainfall, presents unique challenges. PVRADAR:

  • Uses a large database of global soiling models and field data.
  • Helps understand localized effects like dew and particle caking.
  • Demonstrates effectiveness through real-world testing (e.g., 2% gain post-cleaning in Germany).

Snow Accumulation & Albedo Optimization

PV in snowy regions must address energy losses and structural stress from long snow seasons. Additionally:

  • Bifacial modules benefit from reflective surfaces (high albedo) like snow.
  • PVRADAR supports optimizing layout and capacity ratios to boost performance under varied reflectivity.

PVRADAR: Driving Strategic Solar Design

Through robust climatic modelling, PVRADAR delivers:

  • Accurate risk assessments specific to each site.
  • Comparisons of technology options for proactive mitigation.
  • Tools to enhance project profitability and performance resilience.

By uniting climatic insights with operational strategies, PVRADAR safeguards solar assets across diverse environments, improving long-term outcomes for stakeholders.

Read the full article here: https://pes.eu.com/exclusive-article/securing-solar-investments-strategies-for-world-class-performance-and-reliability/

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