Michele Oliosi Posted February 11 Posted February 11 This post aims to present the main differences an user can encounter when using PVsyst 8.0.7 compared to PVsyst 8.0.6. Thin objects In versions 8.0.0 to 8.0.6, PVsyst did not calculate correctly the electrical shading losses for thin objects. This problem could be identified by inspecting the shading factor tables, showing inconsistent values when selecting “Thin objects table”: The calculation in PVsyst 8.0.7 now takes these properly into account. Electrical shading losses may be modified in your projects with thin objects because of this. Bifacial systems Several changes will affect projects with bifacial modules. No fundamental changes were made to the model, but default values and parameter labels have been updated. PVsyst 8.0.0 introduced the possibility of defining the number of rows and pitch used in the backside geometry model manually. Previous to that, the number of rows and pitch were automatically extracted from the orientation definitions, or from the 3D scene when available. This automatic evaluation was not always correct. For unlimited orientations, the number of rows used in the bifacial model is now forced equal to the number of rows in the orientation menu. Related fields in the bifacial menu cannot be edited anymore. See below in 'New Warning' for the behavior when opening a variant with simulation results that were using a user choice for the number of rows. Default number of rows The estimate for the number of rows has been improved. For example, in version 8.0.6, the number of rows returned the total number of trackers. This is now fixed. Note that with complex 3D layouts, this estimation could still be not fully representative of your system. This is why it is possible to override the number of rows manually. Reading PVsyst 7 or earlier simulation results Variants stemming from PVsyst 7 or earlier did not store the number of rows parameter. When reading the results in PVsyst 8.0.7, for variants where the number of rows cannot be determined retroactively, the report will show an “NA” note for the number of rows. If a new simulation is run, the number of rows will be set to the new default value. New warning A warning will be displayed when the user sets a non-default value for the number of rows in the backside geometry model. The PVsyst estimation for the number of rows is based on the 3D scene layout when available. With complex 3D layouts, this estimation could be not fully representative of your system. In such a case, this warning can be ignored. For the rare cases, where a variant with an unlimited orientation contained a user choice for the number of rows in the bifacial model, this warning will also appear if the variant contains simulation results, to make sure that the report and results correctly reflect the settings that have been used for the simulation. Since this option is not available anymore in V8.0.7, it is not possible to change the number of rows in the bifacial window. However, when running the simulation again with V8.0.7 the number of rows will toggle back to the default value, which is the number of rows defined in 'Orientation'. EW axis and NS-frame trackers When the azimuth of the axis was not zero, shadings were not properly calculated. This meant that the “Near shading losses” were not reliable. This has been corrected. Grid limitation and trackers In versions 8.0.0 to 8.0.6, a bug when combining grid limitation and the tracking algorithms “irradiance optimization”, “wind stow” or "seasonal tilt" prevented these algorithms from being properly applied. This has now been fixed. This may increase transposition gains in your variants, as irradiance optimization now corrects the tracker motion to maximize irradiance properly.
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