SEE Report

SolarHub hosts the Solar Energy Report as an initiative of SolarTech. The purpose of this report is to provide customers and industry with a standard method and format for easy comparison of PV system energy output. The SEE Report is not a performance guarantee. This report favors consistency and ease of input over precision.

First year energy output is estimated by PVWatts version 2. Standard derate factors for the following components are used for all calculations:

• Mismatch = 98%
• Diodes and connections = 99.5%
• DC wiring = 98%
• AC wiring = 99%
• Soiling = 95%
• System Availability = 98%

The following derate factors vary based on selected inverter and PV module:

• Inverter & transformer = CEC weighted efficiency of the selected inverter
• PV module DC rating = 1 – lower power tolerance percentage of selected module. Note that if the module manufacturer has not supplied the power tolerance data in Solar Hub, the lower power tolerance is assumed to be -5%, making the PV module DC rating derate = 0.95.

The overall derate is a product of all individual derate factors.

The SEE Report takes advantage of PVWatts optional “inoct” parameter to account for mounting method effect on nominal operating cell temperature (NOCT).  The mounting method affects the operating temperature, which in turn affects system output.

Solar shade percentages are applied to PVWatts monthly output estimates.

25 year estimates assume system annual output degrades by 0.5% per year.