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Prospect PV simulator inputs

  • Published on Jul 15, 2026
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In this document

This document describes the simulation inputs required by the Prospect PV simulator. It covers the solar radiation and meteorological data, the PV system geometry configuration, and the simulation parameters that together define the conditions used throughout the simulation.

Overview

Simulation inputs are the starting point of the Prospect PV simulation chain in Solargis Prospect. Before any optical or electrical calculations can take place, the simulator must be supplied with data describing both the site's physical environment and the configuration of the PV system. The quality and completeness of these inputs directly determine the reliability of every result that follows.

The Prospect simulator does not operate on full historical time series. Instead, it takes a compact, statistically representative dataset: 12 representative days (one per month), each sampled at 15-minute resolution and provided at seven percentile levels. This input structure allows the simulator to capture the statistical distribution of the solar resource across the full range of climate variability while keeping computation fast enough for portfolio-scale assessments.

Inputs included in this stage

  • Solar radiation and meteorological data

  • Sun position and far horizon

  • PV system configuration (mounting type, panel layout, spacing, tracking parameters)

Simulator inputs

Solar radiation and meteorological data

The Prospect simulator processes input data as tuples of solar radiation and meteorological values sampled over 12 × 96 time slots — one representative day per month at 15-minute resolution (24 × 4 = 96 time slots per day). Each time slot is provided at seven percentile levels: p01, p10, p25, p50, p75, p90, and p99.

Note: The values passed in are not momentary measurements. Each percentile series is statistically derived from the long-term historical time series. For example, the p10 value at a given time slot represents the irradiance level that real values will be at or below 10% of the time at that hour and month.

The following parameters are included in each time slot:

  • GHI — Global horizontal irradiance [W/m²]

  • DNI — Direct normal irradiance [W/m²]

  • TEMP — Air temperature [°C]

  • PWAT — Precipitable water content [kg/m²]

Sun position and far horizon

Sun position and horizon are provided as separate inputs independent of the percentile structure:

  • Sun position — Solar azimuth (a0) and refracted elevation (h0refr), both in radians, provided as arrays over the 12 × 96 time slots. Azimuth is in aspect format (0 = south, positive clockwise toward west).

  • Far horizon — Horizon elevation profile in radians, sampled at evenly spaced azimuth intervals clockwise from north.

Note: The Prospect simulator receives solar position and horizon data in radians. The test harness converts from degrees, but the simulator itself requires radian inputs directly.

A separate service provides the percentile input dataset. The simulator receives these arrays as inputs and does not compute percentiles internally.

PV system configuration

PV system configuration is handled using pre-defined templates in the back-end combined with user inputs:

  • Mounting type (user-defined)

  • Field topology and spacing (user-defined)

  • Module and string layout

  • PV module and inverter specifications

These input are then processed in the first stage of the simulation - the optical simulation.

Further reading

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