Combining the expertise of GPM’s data infrastructure and DNV’s trusted advisory services, owners, operators, EPCs, and investors will improve their solar plant returns and mitigate their financial risk by the issues identified by SolarGEMINI. These analyses are integrated into GPM Horizon – a software web-based solution – but also available as a standalone product, focused on fast immediate results that can be used in M&A transactions. DNV’s SolarGEMINI provides the most comprehensive analytics solution in the solar industry for maximizing production, reducing costs and making data-driven decisions. By 2050, solar power will produce a third of electric energy, as projected in DNV’s 2020 Energy Transition Outlook. This remarkable growth will be due in part to continued decline in PV technology costs and favorable levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) rates. Still, solar investors and operators face challenges to revenues in the future, as markets place lower value on the power produced by this variable renewable and substantial increases in solar generation result in price cannibalization. These trends will accelerate in the next decade. But yet, the industry has shown that solar plants have been underperforming by anywhere from 3% to 7%*. What are the causes? And most importantly, what actionable items can be done?
“This is really where SolarGEMINI comes in. We don’t just identify the cause of the underperformance, but also provide actionable insights to improve plant production.” Said Cegeon Chan, Director, Wind and Solar Energy Assessment at DNV.
In the example above, we helped a Customer derive the soiling losses without any soiling sensors. Simply leveraging the Clear Sky Model, SolarGEMINI is able to not only help quantify the potential revenue loss, but also to show the supporting material to assist Operators in making data-driven decisions. In this particular case, after providing the supporting evidence to the Customer that the plant will be losing 7,000 euros in the next 30 days if no action was taken, the Customer decided it made financial sense to wash the panels. In the coming year, DNV’s SolarGEMINI will continue to expand the Waterfall Chart capabilities, include inverter prediction failures, and provide long-term annual forecasts. * 2020 Solar Risk Assessment; 2020 kWh Analytics Solar Generation Index DNV’s 2019 Whitepaper Solar Power Performance White Paper