Open Access Computer Tool for Calculating Hourly Photovoltaic Solar Energy Generation

Abstract

An open-access computer calculation tool, programmed in Python language (through the Visual Studio Code editor), for the calculation of hourly electricity generation of a photovoltaic solar plant will be presented. To achieve this, the equations of the Hottel model that estimates the incident irradiance on a horizontal surface by means of a clear sky model were programmed, correction coefficients were applied to adjust the irradiance to monthly average daily values recorded and the Lui- Jordan transposition model was programmed to calculate the hourly photovoltaic generation for inclined surfaces. The result was a computer tool with a simple graphical interface (programmed using Tkinter), capable of calculating the photovoltaic solar energy generated by a solar plant at intervals of time every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, whose calculated values are saved in a CSV format file for later manipulation. This application is limited to use within the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, but scalable to larger regions.