Rapid update, more granular solar power and solar radiation forecasts for your utility scale sites
Satellite imagery, PV plant measurements and sky-imagers are what power the Solcast Utility Scale Solar Forecast product. We start with our proprietary cloud detection, aerosol tracking and prediction algorithms to continually refresh our global snapshot of the near-term and real-time availability of solar radiation at the solar farm location.
With some basic information about your solar farm asset, we can immediately begin producing live and forecast power output estimates. We also give you access to our solar radiation estimates and forecasts for your site. With the addition of pvlib to our modelling stack, you are in full control of the layout of your solar farm. Specify module and inverter types, tracking information, derating and soiling conditions and much more, in order to uniquely tailor the power forecasting models to the behaviour of your individual solar farm.
Finally, if the first few minutes of the prediction are of great importance, we offer an optional sky-imager add-on to track clouds and forecast the local conditions at your site for additional forecast accuracy and precision.
Access to Utility Scale Solar Forecasts
Upon creation of your free API Toolkit account, you will be prompted to add some basic information about your solar farm. This includes the name, location, capacity and installation date. Once completed, this will trigger the creation of a new ‘site’ in our API system, which you can use to instantly retrieve both live (real-time back through 7 days) and forecast (present time to 7 days ahead) power output estimates. Both the live and forecast data, solar radiation and power, are available at 5, 10, 15 and 30 minute time resolution, and include our built-in accuracy assessment tools. After you’ve created a site, you’ll also have the option to upload your plant measurements to leverage our PV Tuning technologies.
Your first Utility Scale site is free to create, with pricing starting from $99 USD / month per site for additional sites, with discounts applied for more than five sites. Utility scale sites come with complimentary access to 5, 10, 15 and 30 minute resolution solar irradiance live and forecast data.
Data Specifications
In the table below are our indicative specifications. Once you’ve created your free API Toolkit account, you’ll be able to download our data for testing and review our detailed API documentation. Following the below specifications table, is an easy to use pricing calculator.
Utility Scale | ||
---|---|---|
Rapid Update | Super Rapid Update | |
Locations | Fixed | Fixed |
Hardware | None | Sky-imager unit |
Prices | $99 USD / site (first site) $50 USD / site (2nd to 5th sites) $30 USD / site (6th to 15th sites) $10 USD / site (16th to 50th sites) $5 USD / site (51st site and above) Enterprise packages available for larger numbers of sites. Contact Us | Contact Us (Enterprise Only) |
Pricing model | Fee per site per month 1000 API requests per site per day | |
Parameters | Live & Forecast:
| |
Time Resolution | 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes | 1 minute |
Update Frequency | Every 5-15 minutes (Rapid Update) | Every 15-60 seconds (Super Rapid) |
Timespan | Live: 7 days ago to present time Forecast: Present time to +7 days ahead | |
Coverage | All continents (except Antarctica) | |
File Format | CSV JSON XML |
Site Specifications
To enable the Utility Scale product for your site, we’ll require some information about your asset, including its capacity, tracking status and installation date. Explore the API Toolkit to learn more about the available customisations for your solar farm site.
Rapid Update & Super Rapid Update | |
---|---|
Required | latitude, longitude, DC and AC capacity, azimuth, tilt, 1-axis tracking (Y/N) |
Optional | Installation date, efficiency factor |
Measurement Data Parameters | Required Total power output (MW) Optional Current availability (% of AC capacity) Site-mean GHI radiation (W/m2) Network constraint flag (Boolean) Network constraint value (MW) |
Measurement Data Period | 6 weeks minimum 12 months optimal |
Measurement Data Resolution | 1 minutes (minimum) 30 minutes (maximum) 5 minutes (optimal) |
Additional Information
The Utility Scale Solar Forecast product includes:
- Detection of shading, soiling and other site-specific factors that influence power output
- Support for multiple tracking systems or orientations
- Automated POSTing of PV measurement data to the API service for accuracy tracking
- Guaranteed privacy for your uploaded PV measurement data
- The ability for users to permanently delete uploaded PV measurement data
Pricing (Paid Tier)
Once you’ve created your API Toolkit account, you’ll have the option of creating one Utility Scale Site. We will provide you with 10 free requests per day for your site under our Free Tier.
If you decide you need to add more than one site, or need more API requests per day, you can use the below pricing calculator to estimate the costs of upgrading to a Paid Tier account . When you’re ready to upgrade, simply add your credit card information in the API Toolkit to start a 30-day free trial (which you can cancel at anytime). Pricing for the Utility Scale product starts at $99 USD / month for your first site, $50 USD / month for your 2nd to 5th sites, then reduces to $30 USD / site / month for your sixth site and beyond. If you have around 15 sites or more, contact us to get an Enterprise quote that includes bulk discounts.
LIVE AND FORECAST (UTILITY SCALE)
$99 USD / month
$50 USD / site / month
$30 USD / site / month
$20 USD / site / month
$5 USD / site / month
1000 API requests per site, per day
Additional API requests at $0.002 per request
We may be able to offer you a bulk discount. Contact us or speak to one of our Enterprise partners, and let us know what you need.
USD / month
Access to Solcast’s Utility Scale data is just a few clicks away
It’s our aim to make access to high quality solar power forecasting easy and straightforward. With our API Toolkit, you are only a few clicks away from creating your own free account. Create your own Utility Scale Solar Forecast Site, test out co-located high resolution irradiance data, watch the power output forecast graphs change in real-time and check our recent forecast accuracy. The API Toolkit makes it easy to learn about how to retrieve the data you need from our APIs.
One last thing - we also offer long-term historical solar radiation data, back to 2007 in most cases. Our historical data include the TMY, Time Series and Monthly Averages data that solar farm developers for site creation, finance and due diligence. You’ll get free historical data requests on sign-up to try it out. Have fun!
Setup your own test site within minutes!
Get started now, and connect your solar farm with rapid-update forecasts with global coverage. All you need to get started are a few basic details about its location, capacity and tracking capabilities.
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