Tip: Any free .glb model (e.g. from Sketchfab or Poly Pizza) can be loaded above. The built-in engineering models include 3D catenary wires and cast real shadows.
Sun & Shadow
00:0006:0012:0018:0024:00
Altitude
—°
Azimuth
—°
Tracker rotation0.0°
-90°0°+90°
Backtracking
PV row shading0.0%
—
Average shaded share of module area from neighbouring tables (flat-site geometry)
Set date & time to calculate
Length:0.0 m
Angle:0.0°
Area
PV area
Exclusion
Shading element
No type
Delete
Tables
Move with a base pointM
Copy with a base pointC
DuplicateCtrl+D
Rotate 90°
Align & distribute…A
Select all tablesCtrl+A
DeleteDel
Align — along the table rows
Left edges
Centres
Right edges
Top edges
Middles
Bottom edges
Distribute evenly along the row
Distribute evenly across the rows
Layout gap along the row
Layout pitch across the rows
PV Layout & Mounting Structure
Mounting type
Layout spacing
Mounting structure preview
Top view (scroll to zoom)
Side view (scroll to zoom)
Line
Road
Fence
Boundary
Evacuation line route (plant → grid)
Restricted area (offset each side)
No type
Delete
Import
Found in file
0 areas (polygons) →
0 pins (points) →
0 lines →
Exclusion zone around each item →
One exclusion area per pin (centred on it); along a line a corridor of that radius / width. They are ordinary Exclusion areas: GENERATE keeps the tables out, and each can be edited or deleted afterwards.
Survey points · 0 rows
Coordinate system
EPSG code or proj4 definition
—
A triangulated surface is built from the points and sampled to a light regular grid (≈200k cells max), so even large surveys stay fast.
GeoTIFF raster
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Coordinate system of the file — EPSG code (UTM, Web Mercator, 4326) or proj4 definition
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Sampled to a regular grid (≈600k cells max, never finer than the raster), like a survey: the grading, piles, roads and cut/fill use it.
The raster is drawn on the map (blue, darker with depth) and the flooded ground becomes exclusion zones — cut to the PV areas when there are any — so GENERATE keeps the tables out. They are listed in Site › Terrain, where the overlay can be hidden or removed.
Place objects
Type
Click on the map to place. Click an existing object to edit or delete it. Objects cast shadows on the modules and count in the shading losses.
Terrain & Grading
—
Structure limits
Pile reveal band 1.0–3.0 m (Advanced). Nominal table height 2.0 m (PV Layout).
Before GENERATE
Draws exclusion zones inside the PV areas where the slope exceeds the limits above (Mapbox terrain ≈ 5 m, or the imported survey).
After GENERATE
Checks every pile of every table against the reveal band and the module clearance; tables that cannot be installed by adjusting their height get cut / fill volumes, and the steepest are left out. Click a table on the map for its pile check.
OK
0
Grade
0
Leave out
0
Cut
0 m³
Fill
0 m³
Net
0 m³
Advanced
Earthworks method
Pile check: the ground is sampled at each pile; a straight torque tube (tracker) or plane (fixed tilt) is best-fitted and clamped to the slope limits; the table is floated within the pile-reveal band (front row of a fixed-tilt table — the back row is longer by design) and above the module clearance. Volumes: table strips — the ground under each table and its margin is moved only where the reveal still leaves the band, sampled every ≤ 1.5 × 0.5 m whatever the terrain grid; bulk — each block is graded to a plane within the slope limits with cut balancing fill (× shrink), then the piles are checked on the graded surface. Pile length = reveal + embedment. Volumes on a ≈ 5 m DEM are indicative; import survey points for engineering accuracy.
Electrical design
Site climate
Components
PV module
Inverter
Station transformer
DC combiner box (central inverter)
Design settings
String window: Voc at the record-low ambient must stay below Vdc max; Vmpp at the hot cell temperature (NOCT model, 1000 W/m²) must stay above the MPPT minimum. Current checks use 1.25 × Isc per MPPT input.
Component library
Values are generic market-typical figures — replace them with the datasheet of your chosen products. The library is saved inside the project file.
Layout
An inverter with fewer strings than this share of its maximum is merged into a neighbouring one (no single-string inverters).
Substations & connection points
Battery storage (BESS)
MV station position
The pad (12 × 6 m + 1 m margin) stands beside a spine road in the corridor between the blocks, with the cables joining the road trench — no table is removed. GENERATE leaves an 8.5 m station strip along the spine roads (Spine roads · Spine + perimeter · Grid schemes); a cross-road scheme has no corridor with room, so its blocks keep the pads in the rows.
Inverters
Trenches, corridor costs & block division
LV cables keep to their row corridor, the headers and the roads — never across the rows. A cell longer than this along the rows is split in two, each half with its station at its own end (its road or the row ends).
String & inverter sizing
SLD
Edit
Scroll to zoom at the pointer, drag to pan, click a station or feeder to open its sheet, right-click any symbol to edit it.
PVsyst 3D scene
Writes the layout as a PVCollada 1.4.1 scene (scene.pvc, read by PVsyst 7.0 and newer through Near Shadings → File → Import → Import a 3D scene) with every PV table as a PV face — tilt, azimuth, module layout and tracker axes included — plus the terrain as ground data (terrain.csv) and a README with the import steps, all in one zip.
In PVsyst, pick the PAN file of the same module so the module count per table matches. Tables are single faces (one per section); large plants (> 10 000 tables) make PVsyst's shading calculation slow.
3D render
Sky, sun shadows, glass modules and the satellite image under the plant. The map stays as it is; the picture is drawn off-screen at the chosen size.
Design report
Contents
The report opens in a new tab: A4 pages for the text and tables, A3 landscape pages for the SLD sheets and the layout drawing. Use the browser's Print → Save as PDF (tick "Background graphics"). The HTML file can also be opened in Word.
Yield & LCOE
Weather & irradiance
Hourly GHI / DNI / DHI and temperature, transposed to the layout's tilt or tracker angle.
No weather data yet — fetch the hourly irradiance for the site (satellite or ERA5), or import a PVGIS file.
Losses & finance
Unit costs
Rates are edited in the BOQ stage — each main item with its CIF (supply) and installation rate; the capex there feeds the LCOE here.
Energy: hourly PVGIS power per kWp (temperature included) × plant kWp, minus the layout's own inter-row shading (beam component, pair model with the tracker limits and backtracking), soiling, mismatch, cable I²R scaled with load², inverter efficiency and clipping at AC rating, transformers and availability. LCOE = (capex + Σ discounted opex) ÷ Σ discounted energy with degradation. Unit costs are indicative — set your own.
Map details
Satellite
Terrain
Default
Labels
Roads
Relief Exaggeration1.5x
Building Opacity70%
25.2048° N, 55.2708° E•-- m
EDIT
Key figures in the bar
Saved on this device. Click a figure in the bar to open its stage.
Scenarios
Scenario comparison — CUF compliance, capex by category, BOQ line by line
Layers
Map
Design
Settings
General
Units apply to the displayed areas and lengths; the design inputs stay in metres for now.
Appearance
Map
Substations & connection points
Grid connection
Feeders & line
—
On the SLD the grid end, the line and one incomer per feeder stand above the HV busbar; the BOQ carries the line kilometres per circuit and any new bays at the grid end. The cost rates are the project's cost settings for this voltage class (editable here or in the BOQ).
Battery storage (BESS, AC-coupled)
Capacity & connection
PCS stations
Containers & layout
Compound preview
—
The compound is drawn on the map (containers, PCS / transformer skids) and kept clear of PV tables, roads and trenches. Each PCS station gets its RMU and transformer; the stations of a bay are chained along one MV cable to a breaker on the substation busbar. GENERATE or RE-WIRE wires it; click a BESS station on the SLD for its sheet.
Module, inverter, station transformer and string design; the MV feeder limits. The results (strings, inverters per station) show on the Details button.
Voltage levels
Delivery stations — connection points
Substation type & size
A delivery station is a connection point: the HV substation, MV switching station or LV board where the plant hands its energy over. Which PV area feeds which one is set in PV › Areas.
Layout fill
Roads
Edit roads: click a road on the map and drag its vertices; tables under the new route are cleared. RE-WIRE updates the design, GENERATE keeps your roads and fills around them.
Generate
GENERATE rebuilds every PV area. Click an area boundary on the map to rebuild only that area.
Hybrid — wind, diesel & storage
Place
Click the tool, then the map (3D view): each turbine asks for its rating, output voltage, hub height and rotor diameter, and becomes a bay on the SLD. Turbines at the MV voltage connect directly; others get a transformer.
Wind turbines
Place
Click the tool, then the map: each set asks for its rating (kVA), output voltage and power factor, and becomes a bay on the SLD with its transformer, breaker and cable.
Diesel generators
Contract limits — annual CUF formula
CUF = Σi min(EEDi + DEEDi, GDC) ÷ (GDC × HCY) — EED: energy delivered per hour (never above MDL), DEED: deemed energy, GDC: guaranteed dispatch capacity, MDL: maximum dispatch limit, HCY: hours of the contract year. The hourly dispatch serves the GDC from wind and solar first, stores the surplus in the battery, exports the rest up to MDL and covers shortfalls from the battery.
Wind generation profiles — fixed layouts
CSV / TXT, one value per hour (8760; 15-min or 30-min series are averaged); the last numeric column of each line is read. Save Excel sheets as CSV. One file per wind layout.
Solar + BESS
Evaluate: the hourly dispatch of the selected wind layout, the solar profile of the current layout and the BESS above. Optimise: the cheapest share of the layout and battery size that meets the target, with the capex from the BOQ rates.
Scenarios
Terrain
—
The water depth is taken above the nearest wadi bed, found by tracing where the rain runs off the terrain. A quick screening map, not a hydraulic flood model. The flooded ground becomes exclusion zones (cut to the PV areas when there are any), so GENERATE keeps the tables out.
Sun & shadows
Export
Bill of quantities
Quantities come from the layout, the electrical design and the terrain analysis. Edit a rate to update the capex; the rates are saved with the project and feed the LCOE.
