Whether you were present at the workshop, or you didn’t have the chance to attend and you are interested in learning more about our final project results, find our presentations below.

• Agenda
• The Performance Plus project - Introduction (Mauricio Richter – 3E)
• The PVCROPS project - Introduction (Luis Narvarte - UPM)
• Design tools for the bankability of PV plants (Luis Narvarte - UPM)
• Tools for better characterization of PV modules and inverters (Hans Goverde - IMEC)
• Tools for indoor testing (Johannes Stöckl - AIT)
• Tools for the forecast of PV power (Javier Marcos - UPNA)
• Single fixed sensor able to measure DNI and diffuse irradiation (Alessandro Rossi - Alitec)
• Sky imagery based forecasting (John Kalisch – Univ. of Oldenburg)
• Monitoring intelligence: PV Health Scan (Achim Woyte – 3E)
• Automatic detection of PV performance failures (Jonathan Leloux - UPM)
• On-site detection of issues in underperforming PV plants: tools for field testing (Gianluca Corbellini - SUPSI)
• Testing kits for the quality control of PV plants (Nikolay  Tyutyundzhiev – CLSENES - UPM)
• Energy management and storage control with PV (Mats Vande Cavey – KU Leuven)
• Energy management strategies for the high penetration of PV systems into the grid (Iñigo de la Parra - UPNA)

Please join us for the closing event of the Performance Plus project, co-organized by the PVCROPS consortium. Discover what we learned from developing and demonstrating models and tools for monitoring, control and testing of PV systems. Join us in discussing our recommendations for project developers, O&M companies and EPC contractors. From modeling to testing and monitoring, you will receive the full scope of information regarding the performance of your PV systems.

Practical information:

Performance Plus and PVCROPS Closing Event
Brussels, 6th of October 2015

Venue: The Hotel - Boulevard de Waterloo 38, 1000 Brussels

See the full agenda here

Registration:

Please register here for participating (registration is required due to limited places).

Performance Plus is a R&D project for reliable, cost-effective and highly performing photovoltaic (PV) systems. It is carried out by an international collaboration between market, industry and high level research. The project is financed by the European Commission under its 7th Framework Programme. The researchers are developing a series of tools, models and hardware to increase the performance and lifetime of PV installations. The progress and achievements obtained during the first two years of the project were presented to an audience of industry and researchers during the 1st Performance Plus Workshop, held in Brussels on the 19th of November 2014. The workshop presentations are available here. Amongst others, the results obtained by now are:

• Power generation forecasts of PV installations on variable weather days can be brought down to an accuracy of about 4% instead of the current 10% by combining new modelling concepts with improved weather forecast as shown by imec;
• Spatially and temporally highly variable surface solar irradiance caused by broken cloud conditions has been analysed and forecasted by means of a ground-based sky camera. For this approach, Oldenburg university processed sky images to extract the cloud distribution and their motion as well as the resulting surface shadow and solar irradiance fields;
• AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, has developed a flexible inverter model able to precisely predict the performance of a wide range of PV inverters;
• A Model-Predictive Control (MPC) framework that allows controlling the PV plant together with other systems on the site was developed by KU Leuven university. This MPC framework takes into account weather forecasts, variable tariffs, energy efficiency, peak loads, etc. in order to optimize the power injection to the grid over time.
• The sensor prototype called ESA, able to measure both the direct and indirect solar irradiation was designed and built by Alitec. Five units were successfully tested and sent to the Performance Plus partners for comparison with a wide set of data. The first internal calibration results have shown that the ESA sensor has, in average, half of the accuracy compared to traditional devices. Nevertheless, the forecasted market price of the ESA sensor is 10 - 15 times lower than the price of traditional devices;
• 3E has developed a web-based tool for financial optimization of PV systems. The tool calculates the energy over the lifetime and the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). It is based on the models developed within the project and allows for optimizing the system as a whole rather than each component separately;
• The project team has published best practice guidelines for uncertainty in PV modelling and monitoring of grid-connected PV systems. These guidelines will support PV project developers and investors with managing the financial risks. Moreover, the monitoring guidelines will help PV plants to monitor accurately and in a robust and effective way the plant indicators that are required for assessing and improving the operational performance of the plants during their lifetime;
• 3E has developed an automated health scan procedure for fault recognition from operational PV system monitoring data;
• New test procedures to improve the accuracy of PV measurements were developed by SUPSI. These procedures take into account separately the contribution of all possible causes of energy losses and under-performance, optical, mechanical, Potential Induced Degradation (PID) and other degradation effects;
• A set of new test procedures for PV inverters as well as an interface for PV inverter communication and control have been developed by AIT.

These models and tools are currently being demonstrated in field tests. Final versions will be presented at the closing event in October 2015. Thanks to a Users Group composed of seven large portfolio owners and strong EPC and O&M contractors, the consortium has access to 25 PV systems, ranging from small residential to large utility scale PV systems across Europe. During the coming months, the following activities will be carried out by the project team:

• Imec and Oldenburg university will continue with the demonstration of the significant accuracy improvement of the new power generation forecast model for PV plants in varying weather situations;
• The demonstration of the MPC on a real PV plant complemented with a heat pump system in an office building in Brussels started in January 2015 by KU Leuven university; a cooled warehouse and a battery system will follow;
• The ESA sensors installed on five different sites across Europe will be further validated under different conditions by Alitec;
• 3E will apply the automated PV system health scan procedure for fault recognition to real PV systems across Europe;
• The interface for remote control of the active and reactive power of a PV inverter will be demonstrated in practice by 3E and AIT;
• Test procedures and a software toolbox for testing PV systems in the field will be demonstrated by SUPSI and AIT.

Whether you were present at the workshop, or you didn’t had the chance to attend and you are interested in learning more about the Performance Plus project results, find our presentations below:

• Error detection in multi-MW parks (Gerhard Mütter - CEE)
• Meteorological modeling: Short-term forecasting and nowcasting of solar irradiance (John Kalisch - Univ. Of Oldenburg)
• Accurate optical-thermal-electrical modelling of PV modules (Hans Goverde - IMEC)
• Thermal storage and energy management (Mats Vande Cavey - KU Leuven)
• Monitoring intelligence: PV System Health Scan (Karel De Brabandere - 3E)
• Single fixed sensor able to measure both, the DNI and the diffuse solar radiation (Alessandro Rossi - Alitec SRL)
• Tools for laboratory and field testing (Gianluca Corbellini - SUPSI)
• Procedures & Tools for PV inverters laboratory and field testing

Please save the date for the Performance Plus Workshop, which will be held in Brussels on the 19th of November 2014 from 10:00 to 18:00 (CET). The workshop will focus on tools for enhanced PV system performance and will allow interaction between the project results and real needs from large portfolio owners and EPC and O&M contractors.

Detailed information on the workshop, including the agenda can be found here

Practical information:

Performance Plus 1st Project Workshop
Brussels, 19th November 2014, 10:00 – 18:00 (CET)

Registration:

Please register here for participating in the workshop (registration is required due to limited places).

The PV industry has already transformed its practices and technology, to deliver vast improvements in costs and reliability of PV system components, notably on modules and inverters. In an integrated view though, PV system performance emerges from, but is not limited to the performance of an installation’s components. There are still further improvements that can be achieved on a system level at the design and operational phases, to increase reliability and performance of PV at reasonable costs.
The Performance Plus project, financed by the European Commission under its 7th Framework Programme, will focus on these system-level improvements and deliver a series of tools, models and programs to increase the performance and lifetime of PV installations.
The Performance Plus hardware and software toolbox will include:

• modeling tools for more robust design;
• operational modeling tools for system output optimisation
• analysis of integrated energy management,  storage control and short-term forecasting for improved grid integration
• best practices for real time monitoring and control, sensors communication and feedback.

"Through Performance Plus, we are exploring new systematic approaches to improving PV projects and driving down costs. Not only are we pushing the industry forward with new ideas and models for better operations, we are also making sure we provide practical tools and tips to make our research immediately applicable for PV stakeholders” said Achim Woyte, R&D Manager of 3E, the project coordinator.
The project is being carried out by an international consortium of research and industrial partners: 3E nv/sa (coordinator), Alitec SRL, Interuniversitair Micro-electronica Centrum VZW, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet Oldenburg, and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH.
A unique user group - composed of large portfolio owners and strong EPC and O&M contractors, including Clean Economic Energy AG (CEE) and the University of Southern Denmark (SDU)- will support the consortium and provide valuable validation and input on results.
“By supporting the consortium with input and data from our parks, we ensure the applicability of the results and contribute to the global development of clean energy production” says Gerhard Mütter, Technical Director PV at CEE AG.