Global solar sales and design software company PVComplete announced the January 2021 public release of PVSketch Mega, a layout, modeling and proposal web app for utility-scale PV projects. In place of the Solar Power International exhibition, a free webinar on October 27 will provide a live PVSketch Mega demo and answer questions from the industry.

PVSketch Mega informs early stage site assessment and system design with the power of advanced cloud computing. The platform makes it possible to run thousands of permutations of layouts to inform important development decisions by quantitatively evaluating how choices will affect round coverage ratio (GCR), kW output capacity and production values. PVSketch Mega does the heavy lifting to optimize all possible system configurations based on the project’s unique goals and constraints and delivers a configuration that best meets the development team’s expectations.

• Define site boundaries: Import, geolocate and scale site plan images with either Google Maps or KMZ files.
• Import Topography: Import topography for any site through Google Elevation Services. View the topography in 3D directly from the design.
• Assess Rackability (% rackable land): Input limitations like slope and minimum contiguous area to see how much of a site plan is usable. Adjust the limitations to maximize rackability from day one.
• Optimize Possible Configurations: Select various module and tracker options to see how different choices affect ability to meet production and system size goals.
• Calculate Accurate Production Estimates: Get convenient project estimates. Use in application production models specific to system site and equipment.
• Render Layouts Automatically: PVSketch will render the optimal site configuration automatically. Once rendered, it can be overlaid on both the site plan and topography.
• Create a proposal: Present optimized designs in a clean simple proposal that details site information, system configurations and project outputs.

“Making sure utility-scale project economics pencil out has never been more critical when it’s comes to mitigating risk, ensuring project bankability and realizing returns. With that in mind, PVComplete is focused on empowering the industry with sophisticated, utility-scale solar project design software tools to quantitatively inform portfolio decisions and fast-track development timelines,” said PVComplete CEO Claudia Eyzaguirre. “PVSketch Mega is powerful on its own, but even more so when paired with PVCAD Mega to deliver an integrated utility-scale solar project software platform for developers, engineers and installers. It’s a direct sales-to-engineering channel. Developers can seamlessly export a PVSketch Mega project to PVCAD Mega, where engineers can then refine the final design in the CAD environment — tweaking layouts, generating full pier schedules and exporting shade scenes to PVSyst.”

To register for the webinar, visit https://pvcomplete.com/mega_month_webinar/.

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