Working with your Evaluate projects

In this document

You will get familiar with the Evaluate project structure and how to work with it.

Opening your project

You can open your project by clicking its name in the projects list on the Projects page.

The project page

You will be presented with the project overview page upon opening the project. The project page consists of the following:

Project navigation menu - use it to navigate to different project sections.
Energy system selector - use it to select the preferred dataset or energy system. Related data will be loaded to the Analysis section.
Access project properties and change the project’s name or application visibility.
Use the three-dot project menu to change the project owner, assign labels, or request consultancy services.

Navigating the project

The project navigation menu allows you to move between different sections: Overview, Project, Analysis, and Downloads.

Overview section

The Overview section is shown as default when you open a project. It consists of an energy system selector to choose the dataset or energy system you want to display for evaluation, the project's general info, and its analysis overview.

Energy system selector

The energy system selector section lets you choose an energy system or dataset you wish to evaluate.

Energy system selector - the analysis section will show data based on the selected energy system or dataset. Depending on your project activation stage, you may select between automatically generated Time Series and TMY P50 data or created GTI/PV energy systems. Energy systems are created using the energy system designer.
Energy system/dataset type indicator.
Simulation data type indicator - helps you to identify the data used for the simulation of the selected energy system/dataset.
Selected energy system status - indicates the status of the energy system simulation. Non-calculated systems have a simulation icon next to them to start their simulation, and calculated systems are accompanied by a chart icon to access their analysis data.
Energy system options menu - additional options provided for the selected energy system.

General info, location, and primary energy system information

Project info and Location tabs show you basic information about your project, such as its name, current stage, date created, or time zone. You can open their additional details by clicking the respective links.

The Primary energy system tab shows you basic information about your primary energy system.

Project analysis overview

The Solar resource, Climate, Environment, and PV statistics tabs show you a quick overview of the core parameters in the respective category. You can explore more detailed analyses using their “Detailed analysis” buttons.

Availability of individual overview tabs depend on the dataset/energy system selected, e.g., PV statistics is shown for PV energy systems only.

Project section

The Project menu provides access to additional project information and offers various project instruments. The information is categorized into sub-sections, each providing specific information and tools to work with your project. Explore the individual sub-categories and what’s included in the drop-downs below.

Project info

Apart from General info tab where you will see basic information, you can review the apps your project is active in. Use the “More details” link to edit enable/disable the project in available application (Prospect or Evaluate).

Project history

If you need to review actions performed on the project, you can review them in the Project history. You can track actions such as project creation or project access management. The Transactions tab provides a comprehensive overview of the transactions executed within the project.

Project data

If you want to know what add-ons and data packages are available in your project, navigate to the Project data section. Here, you will find information about your current subscription and what is included. You may also activate or purchase extra add-ons from here using the respective “Activate” links. Included add-ons are free of charge and add-ons that are available for purchase are displayed with the SGU price tag.

Location

This page provides detailed information about the location, the site horizon and sunpath, day length, and solar zenith angle during the year.

Energy system

The Energy system page gives you a detailed overview of the energy systems created in your project. You can also access the Energy system designer and create your energy systems from here. The page offers an overview of the primary energy system, its design preview, and the alternative energy systems table.

Create an energy system - click to create a new GTI or PV energy system.
Primary energy system indicator - the energy system has been marked as primary.
Energy system status - the energy system status can be:
1. Not calculated - it has been created but not yet simulated
2. Calculated - the energy system has been simulated, and you can evaluate its data in the Analysis section.
Energy system options - use to open its data analysis (simulated systems only), simulate the system (non-simulated systems only), edit the energy system, duplicate it, or generate a report. Use the icon to view the PV system’s summary.
Customize the table by selecting the columns to display.

Analysis section

The Analysis section is the most critical component of the project, as it synthesizes essential data regarding solar, meteorological, environmental, and photovoltaic system analyses. This comprehensive information is vital for understanding the performance of simulated energy systems or specific locations.

Solar resource - This section displays data on solar irradiance levels, including daily and seasonal variations, which are crucial for assessing the potential solar energy generation at a specific location.
Climate - This section provides information about meteorological conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation patterns, helping to evaluate how these factors influence solar energy production and system performance.
Environment- This section outlines local environmental factors such as albedo or precipitable water, giving further details about the location.
PV statistics - This section presents performance metrics of photovoltaic systems, including energy output, system losses, and long-term degradation, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of the system's effectiveness. It is available for PV systems only.
Uncertainty - provides GHI and DNI uncertainty estimates. It is included for Full evaluation projects only and you must request it in the Project data section.

Note: The energy system selector lets you select between available energy systems or calculated datasets, allowing you to compare data and evaluate the differences for various energy systems.

Download section

The Download section is dedicated to downloading reports and generating data export from your projects.

Reports

You can generate several types of reports, each tailored with a different purpose in mind. Depending on the selected simulated data, you can create the following reports:

Site assessment of solar resource and climate conditions.
Full evaluation of photovoltaic energy project.
Review of solar resource and climate conditions.
Review of photovoltaic energy project.

The availability of each report type is subject to the data type/energy system selected by the energy system selector.

Data exports

Evaluate offers export of the project data to be used in a third-party application.

You can download solar and meteo data or energy system data based on availability.

Depending on the selected data export, they may be available in formats such as Solargis JSON, Solargis CSV, NREL SAM weather file, PVsyst standard format, and Helioscope weather file.

The project workflow

If your project is new and has no data yet, you must activate it first to get the location data.

If you want to build an energy system and calculate additional feasibility data for it, you must create it in the energy system designer and simulate it afterward.

Important: Project activation and simulation are paid services. They are paid by SGUs from your current subscription. The amount of units spent depends on several factors such as the type of your subscription, project activation stage, or energy system size. Learn more about the subscriptions and crediting system in the subscriptions guide.

Once the project has been simulated and data generated, you can inspect its data in the Analysis category. Furthermore, you may generate reports or export the parameters in available formats for further processing through the Downloads.