Wide-area sky view factor analysis and Fourier-based decomposition model for optimizing irradiance sensors allocation in European solar photovoltaic farms: A software tool

Solar farm installers generally struggle with the allocation of irradiance sensors throughout the plant area, which are essential for monitoring purposes. Despite the existence of the International Electrotechnical Commission guidelines for photovoltaic (PV) plant monitoring, no specific guidance is provided when it comes to allocating sensors. This can be especially problematic for solar farms in hilly terrain. In this work, a software tool is built to allocate horizontal and in-plane irradiance sensors. Additionally, advice on the optimum number of sensors and the prevented error is provided based on the layout of the farm. The methodology consists of calculating the irradiance at every point of the solar farm area and finding the one closest to the average. This average is computed differently depending on the sensor type and monitoring purpose. A modification of the BRL irradiance decomposition model is also proposed to reduce the bias of the original model. The software has been applied to two case studies of existing solar farms in hilly areas in Greece and Germany, showing its applicability for real case scenarios in different climates and geological landscapes. The runtime of the software tool is mainly a function of solar farm size and the land morphology of its location. This methodology has been only developed for monofacial fixed-tilted PV farms. • Software tool created to allocate irradiance sensors in solar farms. • Advice provided on the optimum number of sensors and error prevention based on farm layout. • 2 km is the optimal radius of evaluation to compute solar farms’ sky view factor. • Irradiance decomposition models overpredict in autumn and underpredict in spring. • Proposed modification of the BRL model depicts no seasonal bias and high accuracy.