SolarEdge Designer: Modeling and positioning of modules

See how to model the roof of a residence and the distribution of photovoltaic modules

7 minute(s) of reading

SolarEdge Designer is photovoltaic system modeling and simulation software available free of charge on the internet.

The application is made available by SolarEdge, a manufacturer of inverters and power optimizers.

SolarEdge Designer is very similar to Helioscope, a well-known tool for photovoltaic system designers – but the latter is paid software.

The tool is accessible online, directly from the web browser, without the need to install software on your local machine.

The main function of the application is to allow you to quickly and intuitively model and simulate photovoltaic systems.

Power generation simulations are restricted to systems using SolarEdge inverters and optimizers, but it is also possible to use the software just to carry out photovoltaic module positioning studies, as we will show below.

The objective of this first article about SolarEdge Designer is to show how to access the tool, show how the roof of a residence is modeled and how the photovoltaic modules are distributed on the roof.

Access to SolarEdge Designer

To use the tool, you must access this address and create an account on the platform. SolarEdge.

Figura 1: Primeiro passo para a criação de uma conta na plataforma da SolarEdge — Figure 1: First step to creating an account on the SolarEdge platform. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

You will need to provide some of your data, in a very quick process. You will then be directed to the screen where the Designer will be accessible, as shown in Figure 2.

Figura 2: Opção de acesso ao Designer na plataforma da SolarEdge — Figure 2: Access option to the Designer on the SolarEdge platform. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

When you access the “Open Designer” option, the tool will open for you, as shown in Figure 3.

When entering the tool, the first message we receive is that there are no projects yet (NO EXISTING PROJECTS) and the system is waiting for the creation of our first project.

On the screen illustrated in Figure 3, you must click on the “+” sign to create a project.

Figura 3: Tela inicial do SolarEdge Designer, aguardando a criação do primeiro projeto — Figure 3: SolarEdge Designer home screen, waiting for the first project to be created. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Before taking the next step, we need to find out the location of the project. A very powerful feature of SolarEdge Designer is that it allows you to search for satellite images of the chosen location, simply by entering the geographic coordinates or the address of the installation.

To find the geographic coordinates of the installation location, you can use tools such as “Google Maps”, as shown in Figure 4.

Figura 4: Tela do Google Maps, onde podemos encontrar as coordenadas geográficas de qualquer local — Figure 4: Google Maps screen, where we can find the geographic coordinates of any location. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

On the project creation screen, we will insert the obtained coordinates (Figure 5) and automatically obtain the satellite image of the installation location.

If you don't have the location's coordinates, you can search for the address directly in SolarEdge Designer, without having to use Google Maps.

Figure 6 shows the result of the search for the installation location, which in this case occurred based on already known geographic coordinates.

Figura 5: Campo de inserção de coordenadas ou de busca por endereço. Imagem: Reprodução — Figure 5: Field for entering coordinates or searching by address. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Figura 6: Tela de criação do projeto com a aba PROJECT INFO (informações do projeto) e a imagem de satélite do local escolhido. Imagem: Reprodução — Figure 6: Project creation screen with the PROJECT INFO tab (project information) and the satellite image of the chosen location. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

The next step is to enlarge the image using the “+” and “-” buttons located in the lower right corner of the screen.

Next, you must create a polygon that delimits the roof. Polygon creation is accessible from the icon shown in Figure 7.

Don't worry about drawing the internal elements of the polygon to define the roof's waters. SolarEdge Designer will do this automatically for you, just click on the “Inner edges” button, shown in Figure 8.

Figura 7: Delimitação do polígono do telhado — Figure 7: Delimitation of the roof polygon. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Figura 8: Definição das linhas internas do telhado com a ferramenta “Inner edges” — Figure 8: Defining the internal lines of the roof with the “Inner edges” tool. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

The roof where we are going to implement our photovoltaic system has a water tank. It is important to define this object as it will restrict the area for placing the photovoltaic modules and will also be an object that causes shadows, which will affect energy generation.

Figure 9 shows the definition of the object with the “Obstacles” tool. A rectangle is defined with two points demarcated.

This rectangle is just a surface and the drawn object has not yet become a volume. The definition of the volume (with dimension information on the “z” axis) will be done in the three-dimensional view of the model, as we will see below.

Figura 9: Definição de um obstáculo causador de sombra, que neste caso é uma caixa d’água. — Figure 9: Definition of an obstacle that causes a shadow, which in this case is a water tank. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

To define the vertical dimension (height) of the water tank, we will access the 3D visualization, as shown in Figure 10, and then create the volume.

To create the volume, we click on the rectangular surface and drag it upwards, holding the mouse.

Figura 10: Visualização 3D do projeto e definição da altura da caixa d’água. — Figure 10: 3D visualization of the project and definition of the height of the water tank. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Finally, we are ready to insert the photovoltaic modules into the roof. Click on PV MODULE PLACEMENT (in the vertical bar on the left).

Then choose the area where you want to insert the modules and click on the edge that will be chosen as a reference, as shown in Figure 11.

Figura 11: Seleção da área de inserção de módulos e da aresta de referência. Imagem: Reprodução/SolarEdge — Figure 11: Selection of the module insertion area and the reference edge. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

After selecting the reference edge, a table opens containing information about the modules that will be inserted: inclination, azimuth, spacing, position (portrait or landscape). The first two parameters are automatically defined based on the roof characteristics.

To start positioning the modules, you must access the “Add PV modules” option and define a rectangular area on the chosen surface, as shown in Figure 12. SolarEdge Designer will automatically position the modules, according to the available space.

Once finished, we can obtain a 3D view of the project with the modules positioned. A beautiful image to show your client.

Figura 12: Posicionamento automático dos módulos fotovoltaicos sobre a área escolhida. — Figure 12: Automatic positioning of photovoltaic modules over the chosen area. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Figura 13: Visualização 3D do projeto com a inserção de módulos finalizada. — Figure 13: 3D visualization of the project with the insertion of modules completed. Image: Reproduction/SolarEdge

Conclusion

In this article we learn how to model a photovoltaic system, including the geometric definition of the roof and the positioning of the photovoltaic modules.

In the next articles in this series we will cover the electrical characteristics of the project, the study of shadows and the simulation of energy generation.