WISH: PV Panels Component

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Mackey on February 11, 2015 at 2:35pm

Dimitrios,

I am not sure if I understand the request. Do you mean that initial radiation should be calculated based on input Rhino geometry or should it somehow try to use the LiDar geometry data that mapDwell does? (Note that it is often difficult to obtain LiDar data outside the US and my experience has taught me that most governments outside the US are not very open with their GIS data).

Also, it is very difficult to know what the tax credits and cost of panel installation are since it varies a lot from location to location.  As I understand it these days, for every Watt of PV installed, around $0.80 is for manufacturing and somewhere between $2.20 and $3.20 is for shipping and installation.  

If you know of a good global database with good estimators of labor installation costs and tax credits, let us know and we can try to link to it but I feel that Mapdwell would probably be using such a database if it existed.

-Chris

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on February 12, 2015 at 3:32pm

Hello Chris,

Thank you very much for taking the time to look into this once again.

I want to reply with an example of the potential workflow, but the GenCumulativeSkyMtx is giving me a fatal error so I can t run the GH.

(I don t mean replicating the Mapdwell, I just reference it as an example of possible assumption inputs regarding costs, type of PV, frame or not, or anything else (I currently lack the knowledge on the subject) that someone would need to vary in order to estimate PV related outputs: returns, payback cycles etc. The input geometry will be our designed in Rhino PV surfaces, with Radiation values calculated from LB).

Any suggestions for this error? When I have this running I will send a GH regarding the PVs.

Thanks a lot!

Dimitris

Attachments:

• cumulativeSkyMtx_Error.jpg, 1.3 MB

Permalink Reply by Chris Mackey on February 12, 2015 at 7:26pm

Dimitrios,

Thanks for the clarification about the PV request and I'm sorry to have given so much pushback.  Climate and energy are complex sciences where it can be difficult to get accurate results but they seem to pale in comparison to economics.  Hopefully, someday we get databases of economic data that can match the usefulness that we pull from the DOE's climate database and, until then, it seems the best we can do is make our own GH definitions from what we find in our own localities and times in history.

The error seems to be happening because of your Ladybug Default Folder.  Do you have LB_LB flying and, if so, what is your default folder?

-Chris

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on February 13, 2015 at 10:15am

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for the reply!

I understand the complexity including costs to inputs and outputs but could be a very exciting future extension of LB/HB.

To further the conversation on such a potential component/s I attach some images and a GH of a (obviously very very ambitious) dummy component with potential inputs and outputs.

Economic related inputs could be plugged in manually, corresponding to project specific needs, contractual agreements, locality specifics etc etc.

Of course what I am proposing could be completely unrealistic...

Thanks a lot once again!

Dimitris

Attachments:

• PV_Test_01.jpg, 225 KB
• Photovoltaics_01.gh, 539 KB
• PV_Test_02.JPG, 161 KB

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on February 13, 2015 at 2:24pm

Chris and Mostapha,

Attached a more "realistic" dummy algorithm for PV Panels.

I took my inputs and outputs from:

http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php

Dimitris

Attachments:

• PV_Dummy_03.JPG, 88 KB
• Photovoltaics_DUMMY.gh, 18 KB

Permalink Reply by Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari on February 12, 2015 at 9:10pm

Any suggestions for this error? When I have this running I will send a GH regarding the PVs.

This is a bug in the new version (https://github.com/mostaphaRoudsari/ladybug/issues/129).

Set workingDir to a folder and it will be gone.

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on February 13, 2015 at 8:15am

Thank you very much Mostapha!

Working now!

Dimitris

Permalink Reply by Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari on February 13, 2015 at 8:34am

Great! Also fixed the bug so it should work with empty input if you update Ladybug_ladybug.

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on February 13, 2015 at 8:38am

It does! Thanks a lot!

Permalink Reply by Fernando Maytorena on July 28, 2015 at 12:56am

Hi, I agree with Dimitrios. The PV-economics component would be of huge help to convince clients to install them, even if you have to input some economics and technical info from the PVs yourself.

Regards,

Permalink Reply by Dimitrios Papadopoulos on July 28, 2015 at 2:34pm

Hello Fernardo,

djordje has done a huge progress on that one with some amazing tools. Check below:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/ladybug/forum/topics/ladybug-pho...

Permalink Reply by Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari on July 31, 2015 at 4:28am

I would also suggest you to check Anton's development which uses EnergyPlus components and let's you calculate the financial values too.

Anton has also posted a couple of video tutorials on this:

and you can find the example file in Honeybee example files.