At a glance
- Alinea Solar’s client wants to build a 1.1MW solar plant – EPC claims the site is more or less flat.
- The drone survey shows a significantly different topography and resulted in a potential lifetime yield loss of €111,155.
- Fast redesign of the plant mitigated the issue and reduced the calculated lifetime yield loss by 68%.
Problem
Alinea Solar’s client faced a severe setback in PV performance when a detailed topography of the 1.1 MW PV plant they were planning showed a slope of 40 meters difference and surrounding mountains.
According to the EPC, the site was “more or less flat”, and the yield would be approx. 1771 MWh/year. But in reality, when updating the original design with the true topography, the yield dropped to 1670 MWh/year.
![Image of the initial design of the solar plant](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/MWhYear-1771-Presentation-169-1920-×-540-px-1.png)
![Image of the initial design updated with drone topography](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-Study-1-Images-169-1920-×-540-px.png)
Their client was looking at a loss of €111,155 over the lifetime of the plant.
![The difference in yield between the initial design on a flat surface and the initial design on topography.](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screenshot-2022-10-17-at-10.30.26.png)
Alinea Solar turned to Sitemark to help their client mitigate the issue and reduce the calculated lifetime loss of the PV plant.
Solution
Sitemark’s drone-based digital solution allowed Alinea Solar to
- Fly the site and upload the data to the Sitemark Fuse Platform
- Obtain a detailed topography to simulate different designs in PVsyst
- Save time and money by not having to send a surveyor on-site to obtain the topography
![Image of the expected electrical loss based on the initial flat design](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-Study-1-Images-169-1920-×-540-px-1.png)
![Image of the real electrical loss based on the updated design with the real topography](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-Study-1-Images-169-1920-×-540-px-2.png)
Results
Using Sitemark’s solution and integration with PVsyst, they were able to design a site within 1 week – by deviating the panels a little bit from the south, and changing the pitch, shadowing was reduced – and increasing the performance to 1745MWh/year. This significantly reduced the lifetime loss to € 35,522 instead of €111,155.
![Image of the improved design that reduced the lifetime yield loss](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-Study-1-Images-169-1920-×-540-px-3.png)
![The improved design reduced the lifetime yield loss](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screenshot-2022-10-17-at-10.55.49.png)
”The Sitemark solution enabled us to create a design that reduced the lifetime yield loss of the PV plant by 68%.
Germán Pinar SanzTechnical Director
![](https://www.sitemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Alinea-Solar-logo.png)
This success story was created from the webinar How to Outsmart Solar Construction Issues Through Digitalization.