Solar power is a far more accessible source of energy. As a result, many solar power installers design and install small-scale solar power generation plants at industrial plants, commercial buildings, and even residential properties.
All of the solar installers need some kind of solar PV design software for:-
A solar designing software facilitates the automation of solar system design, allowing solar contractors and organizations to provide their clients with quick, easy, and correct estimates. Some software allows you to model both the layout and the performance of a solar power plant system. This streamlines and speeds up the engineering, design, and sales processes, which is critical for large-scale solar systems with complex topographies. The advanced data and analytic capabilities a solar designing software provide enable project developers and designers to take advantage of economies of scale and maximize their return on investment.
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Letβs now look at some of the popular solar design software used by solar PV installers:-
ARKA 360 is a SaaS and AI cloud-based software for solar design and sales growth. It specializes in developing software for solar installers and government bodies to create preliminary sales quotations and optimize system designs. ARKA 360 was founded in 2017 and are headquartered in New Delhi.
Features:
AI-Assisted Faster Design Creation: Create designs that are simple, accurate, and quick. View your design in 3D or 2D. Discover numerous iterations and choose the best solution depending on your customer's specifications.
Smarter Energy Profiling & Modeling: Generate detailed electrical diagrams for utility-scale or domestic projects in minutes. Choose from a choice of mounting templates and panel tilt values. Draw in barriers of any shape using the polygon tool and more.
Accurate Simulations and Shading Analysis: Easily predict your monthly, quarterly, and annual power production and losses. Simulate shading patterns for any day of the year and generate reliable heat maps.
Sales Proposals and Commercial Reports: Attract clients with thorough yet exhaustive proposals. Focus on the key growth metrics and provide multiple financial solutions in a concise manner. View your Total Savings, Payback Period, and Internal Return Rate, in one single view.
CAD Layout and SLDs: Fabricate single-line diagrams and export them as DXF files for easy construction plans.
Pricing:
Availability:
ARKA 360 is an online Software as a Service (SaaS) and can be used on any modern browser using computers, laptops, or even mobile phones.
Website: https://www.arka360.com/
Rating: 4.8 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
The interface is only available in English, and no other languages are supported.
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Did You Know? With ARKA 360, you can increase your solar sales conversion by a WHOPPING 300%. π
Aurora Solar develops cloud-based software that enables solar PV engineering design, provides workflow management functionality, and facilitates sales and customer acquisition for solar installers and financiers. Christopher Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo founded Aurora Solar in 2013. It has its headquarters inSan Francisco, California.
Features:
Simple and Efficient Design Interface: Users can perform detailed shading analysis and shade measurement directly in the application, drag and drop components to create system designs, and generate single line diagrams automatically. All designs are automatically checked for electrical constraints, industry best practices, and NEC rule compliance.
Easy and Automated Financial Report: It enables users to quickly determine a project's viability and easily model many of the most common financing structures. Financial models consider the project's energy profile and calculate accurate and dynamic visualizations of financial information such as cash flows, payback periods, LCOE, and bill savings.
Compelling Sales Proposals: Using the project and design data already created in Aurora, sales proposals automatically pull in the custom project and client data, 3D visuals, and financial analysis into any number of clean and professional templates, guaranteeing a consistent, yet customized experience for all clients.
Pricing:
Availability:
Aurora Solar is an online SaaS company that uses aerial imagery to assess solar installation projects.
Website: https://www.aurorasolar.com/
Rating: 4.6 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
Pricing and subscriptions are quite high.
HelioScope is a popular platform in the solar industry for designing and selling high-performance solar arrays. Designers and engineers will find it simple to use and understand. It has a plethora of features that are essential for anyone interested in solar energy. It's no surprise that many users have used this software to design solar PV systems.
Features:
HelioScope has a number of useful features as an online solar design tool. This includes the following items, which are listed below,
Pricing:
Availability:
HelioScope is accessible through any modern browser. Since it is web-based, users can create solar PV designs using their computers, laptops, or even mobile phones.
Website: https://www.helioscope.com/
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
PVsyst is a PC software package for studying, sizing, and analyzing data from complete PV systems. It covers grid-connected, stand-alone, pumping, and DC-grid (public transportation) PV systems, as well as extensive meteo and PV system component databases and general solar energy tools. This software is designed for architects, engineers, and researchers. It is also extremely beneficial for educational training. PVsyst focuses on comprehensive and precise PV system analysis using a comprehensive set of tools.
Features:
PVSyst software has the following features:
Pricing:
The PVsyst 7 Professional plan costs $647 per year.
It includes:
The Classroom plan costs $27 per year
The Student plan also costs $27 per year
Availability:
You need to download the software from its official website and in order to use full PVsyst capabilities you have to buy a license, you can also renew subscriptions for existing licenses on their online shop.
Website: https://www.pvsyst.com/
Rating: 4.4 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
Designing of bifacial PV modules mounted on single-axis trackers is a challenge being faced by the designers.
OpenSolar is the world's first free, end-to-end solar design and sales application, providing solar professionals with a highly sophisticated, yet simple-to-use software tool that meets all of their needs, from marketing and lead management to solar system design, sales, installation, and service.
Features:
3D Design, Leading Accuracy: The fastest, simplest and most accurate 3D design tool available, making your proposals reliable and bankable from the office and in the field.
Integrated Finance Partners: Effortless selection and integration of your chosen finance providers with in-app real-time approvals, making selling easier than ever.
Proposals that Sell: Fully customizable, interactive proposals online or as a PDF. 24% sale conversion drawn from experience selling 10,000's of systems, face-to-face and over the phone.
Free of Charge: All of this is available for free to all users indefinitely.
Open API: Connect your existing CRM and business tools to our industry-leading platform. Work in the manner in which you prefer.
Pricing:
It is totally free of cost.
Availability:
It is a cloud-based app with a mobile-friendly operating environment that allows you to manage your business from any device in the office or in the field.
Website: https://www.opensolar.com/
Rating: 4.2 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
Lacks modern and advanced designing features like heat and solar access.
BlueSol is a software for the design of photovoltaic systems in every country in the world. It allows you to perform the entire process of designing a PV system, from the preliminary assessment of producibility to the realization of the project documentation. BlueSol is a product made with a standard Microsoft interface, very easy to use but at the same time manages every detail of the PV system.
Features:
Pricing:
Not available
Availability:
It is a native software available on Windows or Mac.
Website: http://www.bluesolpv.com/dnnsite/Home.aspx
Rating: 4.1 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
Lacks proper animation to demonstrate the shading feature and losses.
Pylon solar design software is made for fast-growing solar installers. It gets premium features to design solar proposals in under 2 minutes with $0 monthly fees. Pylon is the only solar design software that does not charge a monthly fee and gives solar installers everything they need to expand their business.
Features:
Pricing:
Availability:
It is an online Software as a Service (SaaS) and can be used on any modern browser using computers, laptops, or even mobile phones.
Website: https://getpylon.com/en/
Rating: 4.0 / 5
Ease of Use:
Limitations:
The internet map is not well optimized and displays only partial satellite images.
HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) software navigates the complexities of building cost-effective and reliable hybrid microgrid and grid-connected systems that combine traditionally generated and renewable power, storage, and load management. With over 250,000 users in 193 countries, HOMER is the established global leader for design optimization and feasibility
Features:
Powerful, Proven Optimization: Over 150,000 users around the world rely on the HOMER optimization engine. In a single pass, examine all potential combinations of system types to identify the best one for your system.
Robust Storage Model: Based on the input of thousands of customers, the HOMER storage model is the most accurate and advanced model on the market. For the course of your project, HOMER Grid properly models battery life and performance, so you know exactly what to expect.
Completely Customizable: Make your design specific to your project's requirements. Solar plus storage, generators, combined heat and power, wind, and other choices are available through HOMER Grid.
Accurate Tariff Modeling: Model complicated, unique utility tariffs anywhere in the world, or choose from our library of tariffs.
Understand and Quantify Risk: You can't predict the future, but you can calculate the cost of making a mistake. Sensitivity analyses allow you to evaluate possibilities quickly and simply, so you can see how changes and uncertainty might affect your business.
Pricing:
Availability:
It is available as an Installed software on Windows OR cloud-hosted SaaS version.
Website: https://www.homerenergy.com/
Rating: 4.0 / 5
Ease of Use:
This software can be used to simulate numerous energy sources as well as multiple loads. Wind speed, fuel cost, and emissions fines can all be included in the simulations. It allows you to search for a location by name. However, it was not created with Solar PV in mind. As a result, some of the reports may be less thorough than those generated by other solar PV-specific technologies.
Limitations:
Lacks animation and 3D layout to show the shading feature and losses.
SolarEdge Designer is a free web-based application that assists solar professionals like you in reducing PV design expenses and creating winning customer bids. With this powerful selling tool, you can plan, build, and validate your SolarEdge home and commercial systems from conception to installation.
Features:
Save Time and Money: By producing the system wiring schematic, the new SolarEdge Designer allows you to simulate the system by substantially simplifying the design ste