Skip Navigation to main content U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Bringing you a prosperous future where energy is clean, abundant, reliable, and affordable EERE Home
Solar Energy Technologies Program
 
About the ProgramProgram AreasInformation ResourcesFinancial OpportunitiesTechnologiesDeploymentHome
Concentrating Solar Power
Photovoltaics Why PV is Important PV Basics PV in Use Research and Development Photovoltaic Fundamental Research Photovoltaic Advanced Materials and Devices Systems Technology Development For Builders For Consumers For Students, Educators and Trainers
Solar Heating
Solar Lighting
Solar FAQ
Solar Glossary
Solar Timeline

Systems Modeling and Analysis

Photo of a flat-plate PV powered pump, collector and hot water installed at a campground.

The sun provides half of the hot water used by park visitors at this campground in Wild River State Park. The system is powered by four flat-plate solar collectors, and a small 10-watt, 12-volt PV panel to power a valve and pump that circulate water through the solar collectors.

The Systems Modeling and Analysis activity rigorously assesses the performance, reliability, installed costs, and levelized energy costs (LECs) of a wide variety of flat-plate PV system configurations and applications.

A key goal is to delineate the relative influences of various PV module and balance-of-systems (BOS) options on the installed cost (e.g., dollars-per-peak watt) of the total system and on the LEC over the lifetime of the system. Such results provide feedback to the efforts to develop certain module and BOS technologies that will improve system performance, reliability, costs, and LEC.

The improved models, developed with industry, will help improve system-design methods and provide accurate assessments and characterizations of the delivered PV electricity resources throughout the United States. Such results help us understand the optimum system configurations (e.g., fixed array, tracking array) for various solar energy climates and applications (e.g., utilities, residential, commercial buildings).

The key elements or inputs of the system model are component performance and reliability, component installed costs, installation costs, and other costs such as finance.

Our R&D activities include the following goals:

  • Investigating the steps needed to improve the impact of PV technologies in the marketplace through technical R&D, market analyses, and value and policy analyses

  • Evaluating system reliability and conducting cost analyses

  • Understanding the link between all these activities and their role in the overall systems-driven approach being applied throughout the Solar Program

  • Assessing existing tools, such as computer models, and developing new ones to facilitate these analyses. For example, the PV Advisor Model, which is part of the overall Solar Advisor model, is currently being developed.