Sighten‘s solar energy system production model incorporates key aspects of the industry’s most sophisticated models while maintaining simplicity of user inputs.
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Simple Inputs: simple and non-assumptive user inputs required - module and inverter quantities/models, pitch, azimuth, soiling, and shading
Hourly production profile: hourly production calculations with granular weather data
Equipment-specific calculations: module and inverter-level electrical behavior modeled based on the equipment used
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Sighten offers several modeling improvements over PVWatts. For example, Sighten's model takes into account shade recovery from optimizers and microinverters, unlike PVWatts. Differences in methodology are listed below.
| Component | Sighten | PVWatts |
|---|---|---|
Weather data | NREL TMY Stations | NREL TMY Stations |
Shading | SAM2 shading model | User input |
Module production | DeSoto 5-parameter | User input |
Inverter efficiency | SAM CEC Efficiency | User input |
Sighten production calculation
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- TMY weather data (8760 hours) based on system location
- PV module electrical specifications per manufacturer spec sheet
- This includes parameters calculated by Sighten to construct IV curve (DeSoto)
- Inverter electrical specifications per manufacturer spec sheets
- Array details (e.g. the user inputs or defaults for tilt, azimuth, string size, soiling, shading, etc)
Calculation description: for each hour of a TMY dataset:
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