Documentation

To import solar irradiation, temperature, and wind from Solargis monthly csv file, please follow these instructions:

1. Login to Solargis Prospect application, select your location on the map, save and open the project.
2. Download the csv file to your computer.
3. Open PVsyst and select Databases.
4. Select Known format.
5. Choose Solargis (Worldwide) Monthly option (orange color from drop-down menu).
6. Upload the Solargis csv file that you downloaded from Prospect app.
7. Fill in the required Location information.
8. Click Save file and Create Meteo. PVsyst will create one monthly Meteo (.MET) file for one-year period, which can be used for the simulation

In PVsyst software the process of importing Solargis values of irradiation and temperature is very easy and straight forward. PVsyst simulation engine runs the simulation taking into account global horizontal irradiation, diffuse horizontal irradiation and temperature (and wind speed if available).

PVsyst users can proceed in two complementary ways when importing Solargis hourly data. One option is using a Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) file, which summarizes weather conditions in one single year of hourly data. Other option is using a Time series file, from which several separated one year periods for specific years can be created in PVsyst weather database.

Importing Solargis weather info contained in csv hourly files when working with PVsyst takes only few seconds (tested in version 7.1):

1. Go through "Databases" to access the Meteo database. In the "Import meteo data" section, click on "Known format". 
2. Select external data source "Solargis (Worldwide)" hourly option (green color in drop-down box).
3. Select the Solargis csv file and fill the site and country information required. After clicking on “Import”, PVsyst will create one hourly meteo file (.MET) for one-year period, which can be used when simulating designed systems.

Time Zone. PVsyst most recent versions admit data importing in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time reference. When this is not the case, in Solargis we are also supporting older versions by providing csv files in Longitudinal Time Zone (LTZ) time reference, which is based on using longitudinal reference of the site as longitude°/15 (rounded value). Please note that in many regions the time zone based on longitudinal reference will deviate from the legal time.

Data Time-step. Other time steps like sub-hourly or daily are also admitted in PVsyst. Although importing such files is not so direct, it is possible through "Databases" - "Import ASCII meteo file”. A dialog named "Conversion of ASCII meteo sub-hourly files” will be opened showing other customizable importing options. This option is also suitable when using older data formats which are not supported anymore.

Data format. Although recent versions of PVsyst 6 support Solargis csv hourly format, some older versions of PVsyst only accept data in “PVsyst Standard Format”, which can be chosen from the drop-down box when importing data. Solargis also supports this format for such cases when last versions of PVsyst are not available.

The clearness index. Some sites especially in tropical climate have a very high DIF or Clearness Index which are out of PVsyst internal default limits. Therefore, PVsyst will show these types of notifications:

The Clearness index of the best clear days is very low with respect to the clear day model. Check the values with the "Best clear day Ktcc" graph.

This value of global irradiation corresponds to an unrealistic clearness index Kt.

In such cases, you need to adjust internal PVsyst limits to make it work (Main window / Preferences / Edit hidden parameters / Category Miscellaneous: Meteo, Simulation, Upper limit for monthly Clearness Index Kt). If needed, you can also adjust the Lower limit for DIF. 

Period not starting in January. For certain regions, Solargis full time series data file is starting in July 2006 (starting of operations of the satellite over Pacific region). In this case, if a period from January to December is required, Solargis csv file needs to be adjusted by removing the first rows from #54 to #4469 (corresponding to dates from July to December 2006). Before importing the data, the period should be also adjusted manually in rows #19 and #25 accordingly (01/01/2007 instead of 01/07/2006).

Please follow these instructions to import horizon data into PVsyst:

1. Login to Solargis Prospect application, select your location on the map, save and open the project.
2. Click on Project detail > Project info > Modify horizon.
3. Download the HOR file to your computer.
4. Open PVsyst and create new Grid-connected or Stand alone project.
5. Set Project name, Site file and Meteo file and select Horizon.
6. Select Read/Import.
7. Select Horizon software, click Choose, select the HOR file from your computer, then click Ok.
8. Modified horizon will appear. Click Ok and new horizon will be applied.

To use monthly albedo values into PVsyst please follow this:

1. Login to Solargis Prospect application, select your location on the map, save and open the project.
2. Click Project detail and Reports.
3. Choose XLSX format, Generate and Download the file to your computer.
4. Open the downloaded file and find the albedo values.
5. Open PVsyst and select Grid-Connected or Stand alone simulation.
6. Select Project settings.
7. Select Albedo tab, copy the albedo values from Prospect which you previously downloaded, paste them into respective columns and click ok.

For importing monthly values from Solargis the steps are very similar as described above for the hourly files. Only in step 3, select external data source "Solargis (Worldwide)” monthly option (orange color in drop-down box) and click on “Create Meteo” for synthetic generation of artificial hourly profiles.

Older versions of PVsyst may not support direct import of CSV files. In such case, there is another option which allows copy-pasting values:

1. Go through "Tools" - "Geographical sites" to open dialog named "Choosing a geographical site".
2. Create new site and fill in the required values on the first tab.
3. Then go to "Monthly meteo" tab and copy paste them from the pvPlanner report in XLS format. Be sure irradiation units are selected correctly. Synthetic hourly time-series can be also generated afterwards.

In order to extract data from pvPlanner without horizon shading please follow these:

1. Go to pvPlanner main configuration screen and select the 'Horizon Editor'.
2. Set the horizon values to zero. You can easily do that by deleting the values on the right side and typing the data pairs 0:0 and 359:0. Then click on apply (please see image below).
3. Download the new XLS or CSV files from the pvPlanner section 'report'.

pvPlanner offers a highly accurate terrain model which can be used also in external applications such as PVsyst. In pvPlanner click on "Click to modify horizon" and then "Export to HOR file". HOR file is directly compatible with PVsyst so you can import it and use Solargis terrain in your PVsyst simulations.

Step 3: Open a notepad and paste. Then select all data -> select edit tab -> click replace option

Step 4: Replace colon with a semi-colon

Step 5: Paste in excel sheet and select Data -> text to columns -> select semicolon as delimiters

Step 6: Confirm text to column conversion

Step 7: Now the columns are separated. Now you will need to apply the degree conversion as per PVsyst requirement.

Step 8: In the last step, you will need to correct the degree as per PVsyst requirement. This can be done by summing -180 to each point in the first column. Finally, save the file in .hor extension before importing into PVsyst. Please find the sample .HOR file below.

Result: