Project settings

In this section of the Wizard, the designer defines the settings in order to decide the power or the producibility of the photovoltaic system. In addition, some general parameters are defined as to how the system will be realized.

Power of system:

The power or the energy produced can be defined or by working directly on the layout of the system or through the explicit choice of designer

In first case the power of system is calculated by the program based on the arrangement of the modules on the areas available for the placement of photovoltaic modules. This operation is carried out by drawing the system layout directly on the map.

In second case the power of the system is chosen by the designer, the wizard will create a system with equal length strings and equal inverters.The layout of the system and any changes to the system scheme may be executed by the program outside the wizard.

In this case, the designer must specify the orientation of the photovoltaic field setting the angle of inclination (tilt) and the angle of orientation (azimuth) of the photovoltaic field. Assumes the simplification of having a unique arrangement of strings for the entire system photovoltaics. Once you have completed the wizard, you can change the orientation of the strings, if necessary, using standard modeling tools.

Arrangement:

If the system power is defined by the layout, the arrangement of the modules can be:

• Free, the program optimizes the arrangement of the modules in the sectors present in the layout areas to try to get the greatest possible power.

• Constrained by target power, the user specifies the desired power for the system, so the program arranges the modules in the layout so as to achieve this target. Note that the program may warn you that there is not enough space in the layout to reach that power.

• Constrained by energy to be produced, the user specifies the desired energy production for the system, so the program arranges the modules in the layout so as to achieve this target. Note that the program may warn you that there is not enough space in the layout to reach that energy production.

If the system power is defined by designer, the power or the energy to be produced can be specified, but the goal is always to know the power of the system, which means that the power of the system will be calculated as the power which will be able to produce the specified energy based on orientation of photovoltaic field (Tilt and Azimuth).

Settings:

Definition of general parameters for the realization of the system:

• Maximum DC voltage from photovoltaic field, sets the maximum DC voltage output from the photovoltaic field, this limits the length of the strings.

• System built using micro inverter, the system will be designed using only micro inverters. This choice affects certain features of the wizard that no longer provides a DC section.

• Storage layout, decides between two accumulation design approaches: DC-coupled battery storage or AC-coupled battery storage.

If the batteries are inserted in the DC section and if the arrangement of the modules is performed directly on the layout, the wizard runs a sizing of system with a only exposure of the photovoltaic field, a single charge controller and only one inverter. This limitation can however be overcome by operating changes in the schema of system after the completion of the wizard.

• Tracking system of strings, specifies the type of strings tracking and its configuration. This is applied to all strings in the system.

• System placement, chooses whether the system is made on a roof or on the ground.

Sequence of choice:

You can decide the sequence of choice between modules and inverters, but this option is only useful if the power of the system is chosen by the designer, in fact if the power is defined by the layout of the system, the designer always chooses the module first.

If you want to choose primarily the photovoltaic module, after the choice of the model, the program offers a number of possible compositions of the grid to obtain the required power for the system. You can also choose the number of the inverter on which divide the grid of photovoltaic system. The division is carried out as far as possible uniformly on the inverters.

If you want to choose primarily the inverter, the program requires the definition of the number of inverters you want to use. The power of the system will still be equally divided on the number of inverters. The window also displays the list of inverters compatible with the request power, the search is performed within the database of inverter of the program.

If there is no internet connection:

You cannot use the layout features of the program, so the designer can only explicitly choose the power of the system and only the Power or energy production defined by designer option is enabled.