Photo voltaic calculator helps Australians forecast value financial savings of panels and batteries

A brand new model of UNSW’s SunSPOT photo voltaic calculator now covers all of Australia and permits households, small companies and councils to acquire impartial photo voltaic and battery financial savings estimates.

A newly up to date model of SunSPOT has been launched to assist shoppers and companies calculate the solar energy potential of their rooftops.

The on-line utility, developed by the Australian PV Institute (APVI) and UNSW Sydney, had beforehand been obtainable solely in a small variety of places in New South Wales.

With assist from the Australian Authorities, it now works for places throughout the nation and comes with important upgrades, extra correct estimates, a brand new user-friendly interface, and a model that’s freely obtainable and not using a council subscription.

“Discovering out how a lot it can save you with a battery, or what measurement photo voltaic system can match in your roof, or getting estimates on the very best system measurement to your electrical energy utilization has by no means been less complicated or safer,” says Dr. Anna Bruce, SunSPOT Undertaking Chief and Affiliate Professor of Renewable Power Engineering at UNSW.

“SunSPOT V3 has been constructed by engineers at UNSW’s world main Faculty of Photovoltaic and Renewable Power Engineering particularly to assist individuals perceive what photo voltaic can do for them—to not promote photo voltaic.

“It is the one impartial software with this degree of research obtainable to the general public in Australia. All different photo voltaic calculators search to seize private data and generate gross sales leads.

“Now, with nationwide supply and enhancements to its usability and accuracy, SunSPOT will have the ability to assist the overwhelming majority of Australians confidently navigate the complicated photo voltaic market.”

Answering questions on photo voltaic and batteries

Earlier variations of APVI’s flagship software have solely been obtainable in areas the place there may be spatial mapping LiDAR information obtainable and the native council has taken up a subscription. Now, with the assist of the Australian Authorities, a “customary” model of the software that doesn’t require LiDAR information has been launched and can be utilized totally free, all over the place.

Dr. Mike Roberts, SunSPOT Undertaking Chief and Senior Analysis Affiliate within the Faculty for Photovoltaic and Renewable Power Engineering at UNSW says, “House owners not must rely on salespeople to coach them. With this newest model of SunSPOT, everybody can get dependable, tailor-made solutions to widespread questions on photo voltaic and batteries.”

In two minutes, SunSPOT customers can discover out what system measurement will give them the very best return on their funding and get an estimate of the associated fee and annual financial savings.

They will additionally evaluate the prices and annual financial savings with completely different battery sizes, answering the query in everybody’s heads: “Ought to I get a battery?”

Dr. Roberts says, “The APVI has discovered that Australia has the potential to put in 179 GW of rooftop photo voltaic capability—however thus far we have put in lower than 10 % of that.

“179 GW of photo voltaic would generate extra electrical energy yearly than the full present annual electrical energy consumption within the nationwide electrical energy market.

“Rooftop photo voltaic has a number one half to play in decreasing Australia’s emissions.”

SunSPOT’s intelligent mapping software permits customers to tug and drop scaled teams of panels onto their roof to allow them to see what number of panels will match and the place they will go.

Figuring out greatest location for panels

There are two variations of SunSPOT obtainable: the premium model that includes mapping the realm with LiDAR information and is paid for via a subscription by the native council, and the usual model that’s obtainable to everybody, all over the place with out the council subscribing.

The premium subscription-based model of SunSPOT identifies the very best areas for photo voltaic panels with crimson dots on the rooftops.

Spatial mapping LiDAR information allows it to learn the form, slope and orientation of the rooftop. It will possibly additionally estimate the quantity of shading throughout the yr on each 0.25 m² space on the roof, and the affect this has on invoice financial savings. That is mixed with Bureau of Meteorology climate information for the native space.

Customers of each variations can add their sensible meter information and electrical energy tariffs for much more correct estimates.