Ben, this tool is excellent - thank you for putting it together.
One question on the outputs:
When I put in 200 MW of Solar PV, the peak daily output is only ~150 MW, even in the best parts of the county like the example for Phoenix below.
How are you modeling solar output - are you assuming fixed tilt or 1-axis tracking panels? Something seems off because the the solar farm should be able to hit its nameplate capacity of 200 MW during peak solar hours in the middle of the day.
I think I see the problem: the get_solar_ac_dataframe() function is assuming a fixed tilt of 20 degrees, which isn't appropriate for most locations. A simple fix that would improve the accuracy of the solar power outputs is to set the tilt to the location's latitude.
Ben, this tool is excellent - thank you for putting it together.
One question on the outputs:
When I put in 200 MW of Solar PV, the peak daily output is only ~150 MW, even in the best parts of the county like the example for Phoenix below.
How are you modeling solar output - are you assuming fixed tilt or 1-axis tracking panels? Something seems off because the the solar farm should be able to hit its nameplate capacity of 200 MW during peak solar hours in the middle of the day.
Cheers,
Kevin
I think I see the problem: the get_solar_ac_dataframe() function is assuming a fixed tilt of 20 degrees, which isn't appropriate for most locations. A simple fix that would improve the accuracy of the solar power outputs is to set the tilt to the location's latitude.