Project description
New software to help grow utility-scale solar farms
Over the last 15 years, the photovoltaic (PV) industry has grown from a small group of companies and key players into a global business. The growth of the utility-scale PV solar industry, which generates solar power that is fed into the grid, is expected to reach 1 TW in 2022. This has resulted in a growing need for feasibility analyses in PV projects. The EU-funded pvDesign project is developing cloud-based software that will automate the utility-scale PV power plant feasibility analysis, design and basic engineering process. The aim is to provide automatic financial and production reports that make it easier, faster and more accurate to calculate investment requirements and prevent losses.
Objective
The worldwide growth of utility-scale PV solar industry, expected to reach 1TW in 2022, has established the need for new tools to absorb the exponential amount of feasibility analysis and to get enhanced design and basic engineering process of PV solar plants. Developing a PV project is a process involving many stages and requires valuable resources of engineer-man-hours. The lack of suitable PV design tools at feasibility level is boosting the interest generated by RatedPower in the PV solar industry. Our solution, pvDesign is a SaaS cloud-based tool that allows to automate the utility-scale PV power plant feasibility analysis, design and basic engineering process making it much faster (max 1h), accurate and reliable (errors reduction from 10% to 3.5%), thus boosting the efficiency of our target customer. The ultimate objective of designing and studying with pvDesign is to accelerate the best combination selection by making easier the work, also reducing the probability of miscalculations that risk the profitability of these large investments. Furthermore, it can provide a wider range of plant configurations in order to find the optimum one, so to prevent great investment losses over the initial years of the plant´s operation due to poorly done studies. pvDesign is the only system in the market focusing primarily on the feasibility analysis, design and basic engineering study of a PV utility-scale power plants. There is no similar product on the market that offers automatically production and financial reports along with all the necessary engineering documentation. Since May 2017, 25 companies from 10 different countries have already purchased pvDesign. From 2019 on, we will emphasise sales with the intention to become a market standard and pursue a total market share <50%. The project is highly lucrative with total sales in 2023 of €11 million, Cumulative Net profit €10 million, and ROI=5,51. The total number of jobs created in the period will be 65.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28001 Madrid
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.