Principal Renewable Energy Consultant Wood PLC, New Mexico
Presentation Description: Spatial analysis is underused in renewable energy applications and is typically used with simple analyses and maps. However, spatial analysis can be used from early site suitability and design to assessing operational failure patterns using time series SCADA data and evaluating as-built conditions to analyze underperformance. This presentation will consider operational data from multiple solar farms to analyze patterns of failures and underperformance. As-built planes of array and terrain will be examined to determine potential losses from orientation and design on a row-by-row or mechanical block basis. SCADA data will be used to analyze spatially temporal data, including production, measured irradiance, availability, and system faults. By analyzing multiple factors temporally and spatially, the past and current operational conditions can be used to identify areas that are affecting underperformance, help predict future performance, and allow for potential operational optimization of solar plants to maximize performance. In addition, the analysis will help shed light on design of prospective solar farms to consider optimization through the use of spatial analysis.
