André Mermoud

If you have 2 modules in portrait in the width of you shed, the shed's width is indeed 2 x length of one module (plus the spacing between them).

Reading formats of specific data (like SolarGIS) follows usually very "rigid" rules. And a half-hour time zone is perhaps not recognized. Or perhaps the SolarGIS file format has been changed. Please send us this SolarGIS file (to support@pvsyst.com).

As you mentioned, the battery bank estimation in PVsyst is expressed as C10 value, as the "characteristic capacity" specifying the batteries in PVsyst is C10. However these sizing results should only be interpreted as a rough estimation. There is no absolute way of defining the size of a battery bank, as this depends mainly on the meteo variability, and the eventual unequal use of the electricity. In PVsyst, the estimation is performed by: - generating a synthetic daily data set from the Monthly meteo data. - performing a quick (simplified) simulation during this full year. - estimating the probability of "loss of load" (PLOL, user's disrupting time), and adjusting the battery bank according to your specification. Now this process is mainly dependent on the worst days sequence in the meteo data, which is highly variable, and depends on the synthetic generation. In a next version of PVsyst we will provide a tool for performing a large set of Synthetic generations and analyze the probability distribution.

Yes of course. It is quite impossible to compare the instantaneous values with measured ones when you have meteo data specified in monthly values, which is the case for Meteonorm, PVGIS and NASA. With such monthly data, the Daily and Hourly meteo data are randomly generated (synthetic hourly data generator), and cannot correspond to any real instantaneous data. The only way for analyzing measured data of a power plant is to measure the Meteo (irradiance and temperature) on the site (or very eventually to get simultaneous measurements from a nearby station, or Satellite with a very narrow resolution). And even the Monthly values cannot be compared accurately, as the data of the Historical sources are usually averages over several years, which cannot correspond to the weather of your particular month.

We discovered indeed simulation errors in the V 6.33 and 6.34 when using Mixed orientations. These will be corrected in the next version 6.35.

There is no direct mean of sizing the sheds configuration, as this is a multi-variable (and complex) problem. However you have a pedagogic tool for the understanding of the basis of the shed optimization. In the "Orientation" part, please choose "Unlimited sheds". And here you have a button "show optimization" which shows the issues. You can press F1 for explanations in the help.

This is not possible with the simplified "Unlimited sheds" option. You should do that by defining a 3D representation of your system.

No, this is not possible, sorry. The simulation report is the reference. The parameters displayed are those which may be modified fom one run to another one.

The problem is here in the inverter's definitions. Please carefully check these definitions, namely for the nominal power and the operating voltage. Please have a look on our FAQ Why sometimes the overload losses increase without reason ? You can directly analyze the evolution of the different variables in hourly values, using "Hourly Graphs" in the Results dialog. NB: I see that you have drawn this "Loss diagram" for a very short time (probably one only day). This may explain that the losses have not the same magnitude than on usual yearly simulations (for example for the temperature loss).

The basic language of PVsyst is English. Some parts of the software - and namely all the reports to be distributed to your customers - are available in other European languages. We are on the way for completing the translation of other parts of the software itself (namely the stand-alone and pumping systems). However the help remains in English, as well as the tutorial. Sorry, we didn't translate these documents up to now. It is rather difficult, as they are often subject to be changed and improved; updating a documentation in several languages is really a hard challenge.

It is rather simple: - In the "Orientation" part, you define the 2 orientations and the relevant months for summer and winter positions. - In the "System" part, you define your system as usually. - In the 3D shadings, you define a system with fixed orientation (either sheds or rectangular fields), corresponding to the summer orientation. You will see that the shading tables - and iso-shading diagram - will be constructed for both orientations. And the simulation will take this configuration into account according to your specifications (you will observe an increased gain for the "Global incident", with respect to summer orientation)).

First please check that your imported values are correct within PVsyst (using "Data Tables and Graphs"). And after that you should check that your simulation parameters are correct. If you have intermediate measured values (like the PV voltage and currents), check that they correspond to the simulated equivalent values.

You should do 2 different tracker arrays on each side of the broken tracker, and define a fixed rectangle for the broken tracker. However you will not be able to put PV modules on the broken tracker: you cannot mix fixed and tracking PV fields.

Quite ununderstandable question. Please give precisions.

You can specify the language of the report in the printing dialog (bottom right).

Please make sure that you did not modify the parameter "Discriminating orientation difference between shading planes" in the project's parameters (button "Albedo and Settings").

I can't say anything. Please check that the shading scene is really present in your calculation version (i.e. behind the button "Construction/Perspective"), and it is "operationnal" (i.e. try the button "Shadows animation aver on day" bottom left).

We organize training sessions in our offices in Geneva. But we cannot ensure trainings all over the world, sorry.

Some answers to these numerous questions: 1. The parameters in the database of PVsyst have been provided by the manufacturer. Please ask them. 2. With thin film modules (i.e. cells are 1cm width on the length of the module): - the effect of the linear shadings (i.e. irradiance deficit) is exactly the same as for crystalline modules, - the electrical effect (mismatch) will be null if the shades are perpendicular to the cells, but maximal (i.e. 100% loss) it they are parallel to the shades (i.e. one cell shaded as soon as the shade is active). 3. The thermal loss factor is mainly related to the mounting mode (back-insulated or not). It is not (or very slightly) dependent on the technology of the module. 4. As you mention, the differences of performance are essentially on the thermal losses, as the muPmp coefficient is lower. They may also be different concerning the irradiance loss. For the shadin loss, only the electrical effect can be recovered (or enhanced if the modules (cells) are not well disposed).

This inverter has 2 MPPT inputs. You have 12 strings to distribute on 4 MPPT inputs. In the reality this will result of 3 strings per MPPT. I don't see where is the problem.

In the present time, PVsyst (Version 6.34) uses the Meteonorm v6.1. We have just received the DLL for the version 7 last week, it will be implemented very soon in a next version.

I don't know what you are doing. I have just tried creating files in batch mode with Version 6.34, and this works quite well. Here is the script of my test: Batch command script in EXCEL

During the simulation, you can create a CSV file (to be opend in EXCEL) with a chosen set of any variable involved in the simulation (more than 50 variables). For this, just before the simulation, you have a button "Output file" which proposes the choice of variables to be written, and other writing options.

This is a problem which has appeared recently with some windows installations. Please make sure that you have Windows reading access priviledges from your session, on the PVsyst installation files (normally c:\Program Files (x86)\PVsyst6.x.x\, namely the \DataRO\ subdirectory).

You are right: there is a bug in the version 6.33 when you don't use the Multi-MPPT capability of the inverter. Please check the box "Uses multi-MPPT feature" and everything will be Ok. This has been corrected in the version 6.34, now available. Please update.