Prospect
Quick estimate of PV site's solar potential
- Input GOES-East satellite imagery for April 2003 was improved. Previously there were some artificially low irradiance values in some regions such as Chile. This issue has now been fixed.
- Improved zoom and map labels for BING satellite map
- Updated UX for map measurement tools
- Fixes to horizon graph
- Fixed bug in snow losses table/graph. Previously -1 value was shown for months with occasional snow.
- Integrated ERA5 data into our historical time series and TMY
- Better temporal consistency of data
- Satellite map replaced with BING satellite map for improved imagery in many regions
- Distance and area measurement tools included in map window
- reCAPTCHA removed for users from China
- PVOUT CSi map layer was updated.
- Performance of application (loading time) was improved
- Compatibility issues with Firefox/Safari browsers were fixed
- Operational aerosol data harmonization was updated for data starting from Jan 2019. Solar radiation data for all regions were re-calculated using updated aerosol data.
- The data harmonization is used to control temporal stability of the input aerosol data coming from various versions of models.
- The biggest changes can be expected for DNI during extreme situations when there was very high or very low AOD (aerosol optical depth). GHI is also affected but to a smaller extent.
Initial release of Prospect app, which will replace iMaps and pvPlanner. Overview of updates and improvements can be seen here: https://solargis.com/blog/product-updates/prospect-launch
- TMY files generated for locations covered by Meteosat PRIME satellite (Europe and Africa) had a small temporal mismatch with time series. The TMY generation srcipts were updated to remove the temporal mismatch.
- Frequency of forecasts delivered via FTP was increased from 2 to 4 times a day.
- The forecasts are now delivered at 2:30 AM, 8:30 AM, 14:30 PM, and 20:30 PM (all times in UTC)
- It is now possible to request data on Wind Gust (WG) at the surface for recent and forecast time periods. Wind Gust data has been made available in response to requests from operators of PV power plants equipped with trackers. For periods when high wind gusts are predicted, PV trackers can be moved to stow positions to reduce possibility of asset damage. Wind Gust data are taken from the GFS (Global Forecast System) model operated by NOAA. The data are available for period from 1 March 2019 onward.
