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Generate Your First Layout!
Generate Your First Layout!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Generating Your First Solar Design

Kayla Treese avatar
Written by Kayla Treese
Updated over 4 months ago

Note: This is meant to be done after completing the Project Setup process, if you haven't gone through that first please read the article linked below and return here after.

Project Setup

The Layout Panel

  • Layout Panel Settings- Below you will see an image of the Layout Panel, this is where most of your layout parameters will be input. To start, simply work your way from top to bottom.

    • For this first layout generation, you will mostly be using default settings

1. Selected Area

  • This section is where you define what to include and exclude.

  • Select all boundaries- The drop down menu will give you the option to select boundaries from list, select from scene, or draw a new boundary.

    • You will select your exclusion zones as well

2. Substation

  • Where you will determine which substation you are using, this allows you to have multiple substations in one site.

3. Target

  • Where you will determine the system size in kilowatts and how many inverters will be used.

  • Maximize DC Capacity- Will maximize the total DC system power within the buildable areas minus the exclusion zones, using the constraints provided. We will use MAX, this will be used to start the project.

  • Target DC Capacity- set target and after generating percentage of target met will be shown. Will be used in later stages.

  • Combine Solar Arrays into Blocks- this is automatically not selected so the system will not arrange the trackers into blocks, we will leave it like this for our first layout.

    • When checked- Will automatically calculate the number of inverters based on equipment selected and allowable inverter loading ratio (ILR, see below).

    • Set number of blocks- If you know the specific number of inverters required for your energy target, can you input a specific number here.

4. Resulting Capacity

  • After generating this will give you the resulting DC, AC, and block numbers.

5. ILR Range

  • ILR (inverter loading ratio) is the allowable DC to AC power ratio allowed across inverters on the site. This is closely related to but not the same as site-wide DC/AC ratio. You can customize this range as necessary for your equipment/project.

6. Row to Row

  • The offset between rows, measured from pile to pile.

  • Set - If you have a target value, (Based on expected GCR, for example) input here or leave as default.

  • Find Max- will calculate the maximum row spacing for a target power

7. Offsets

  • This opens another panel with various offset options.

  • To learn more about the offsets select the “i” icon in the top right corner of the Layout panel to see a full diagram.

8. Roads and Geometry

  • Be sure to generate both support and equipment roads as this will affect system size and will give you a more clear expectation of capacity (which can be refined later).

  • Solar Array Rotation- This is where you can set what angle the solar arrays generated will be at. For example, if you want the arrays to run east to west you'll set the rotation at 90 degrees.

  • Row Height- This is how many trackers can be placed end-to-end in a row when connected to a single circuit.

9. Solar Arrays

  • This opens another panel with various solar array options.

  • In this exercise you will be using the default tracker.

10. Blocks Equipment

  • This is where you can specify the combiner box, inverter, and transformer type for the project.

Generating the Layout

Once you're familiar with the various settings, it is time to generate the preliminary layout.

  • You will want to select all boundaries, have blocks set to "Ignore", and Total DC Power set to "Find Max".

Run "Generate Solution"

  • The Generate Solution button is greyed out at first. Once enough information has been entered for the system to run, the button will turn purple.

View the Results

  • After generating the layout, you will be able to see the DC that was generated immediately in the "Resulting Capacity" section of the Layout Panel

  • Since the blocks were set to "Ignore" the system generated is not broken up into segments but simply placed wherever space is available.

  • More detail can be found in the Project Metrics Panel

Save your project

  • In order to save your layout use Ctrl+S on your keyboard or by pressing the save version icon and creating a new version.

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