On Internet we can find free tools for basic or low complexity solar systems dimensioning and for certain components or accessories estimation.

Sopelia research team has carried out an exhaustive search and testing from which a new corporate website section called Free Solar Tools has been created.

Selected tools were classified into 4 categories.

Today we will analyze the first one: Solar Resource and Other Baseline Data.

In this category we will find data about solar resource and other variables to consider in order to estimate the power that solar system will provide in our location.

It is the starting data for necessary solar system dimensioning in order to satisfy our energy demand.

Tools order is not random. We have prioritized the most intuitive, the most universal and those that can be online used without download.

For this first category our selection is the following:

1) Meteorological and solar energy data

Sponsored by NASA Science Applications Program and developed by the World Prediction Energy Resources Project, this site offers information and supporting documentation for solar systems dimensioning.

The “Data Retrieval” section that interests us is “Meteorology and Solar Energy” and within it, “Data Tables for a Particular Location”.

Once there, entering Latitude and Longitude of our location, we access a series of calculation parameters that we can select or obtain entirety.

2) Daily and annual solar calculator

Spreadsheet developed by US NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory based on Jean Meeus astronomical equations algorithms.

It allows to calculate solar day, year and location specific data.

3) Renewable energies Global Atlas

Geographic Online Information System (GIS) interrelated worldwide distributed centers data.

In addition to information about renewable energy resources you can access information such as population density, topography, land use, infrastructure and protected areas.

The objective of this system is to allow users to identify areas of interest for further exploration.

It is an initiative that involves national institutes, energy agencies, private companies and international organizations.

4) Opensolar

Open database (you can extract and insert information) with global average daily solar radiation data for each month of the year measured on the surface.

5) Monthly average radiation calculation

Tool developed by IDEA research group to calculate monthly average radiation on arbitrarily oriented and inclined surfaces.

Accessing Free Solar Tools section of Sopelia’s corporate website you will find the links to have these tools and begin to configure your future solar system.

All you need is Sun. All you need is Sopelia.

At end of work that resulted in corporate website Free Tools section, Sopelia’s R&D area went work to analyze Solar Software sector in depth.

Around 70 professional software companies were classified in 4 categories:

1) Solar thermal systems configuration

2) Solar photovoltaic systems configuration

3) Monitoring applications

4) Complementary applications

Here are the conclusions.

Software for solar thermal systems configuration supply is very small. Its total share is only 9%.

Software for solar photovoltaic systems configuration offer, with a 43% participation, is the most extensive; followed by monitoring applications, whose total participation is 26%.

Finally, complementary applications offer (which includes facilities design, project management and financial evaluation software) participates with 22%.

The largest solar software vendors’ concentration is in California.

This is the result of two factors: it is the USA state with further renewable energies development promotion policies and the most developed place in information technology sector.

In North American market, are offered applications that cover the entire distributed generation PV systems value chain.

Software for: potential customers identification, customer relationship management (CRM), proposal generation and system design, investment financial risk management, operation and energy management.

Providers located outside United States focus almost exclusively on large-scale solar systems.

Something that caught our attention with force is the little or null response capacity of many suppliers.

The only communication ways is a web form or a phone that does not work and after 2 months of survey, we didn´t get answer to our questions in 22% of companies.

This is an aspect to consider when buying software, since technical support is a key factor in this product.

Solar Software sector will open Strategic Partners section of this blog in 2018.

This new section will include suppliers who have incorporated the Latin American market into their business plans and who have assigned resources to provide reliable products and good customer service.

In Solar Software sector, the news is not very encouraging.

Despite being one of the regions with highest potential and currently with the highest levels of renewable energy investment, very few companies have focused on Latin American market.

The vast majority have not updated their solutions to adapt to this market and do not have the operational capacity to provide adequate after-sales service.

Companies that take the initiative will acquire a dominant position in the region.

All you need is Sun. All you need is Sopelia.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.

Distributed energy generation is the true energy revolution.

It is an unstoppable process, no matter how governments and large electricity companies strive to maintain a centralized and obsolete energy matrix.

Are we completing the Third Humanity Development Wave?

Probably yes.

Alvin Toffler calls First Wave the one that arose with agricultural revolution (from year 8000 BC until XVII century).

Hunting and fishing stage is overcome, and agriculture is born; emerging new structures such as commerce and first villages.

Second Wave emerges during XIX century, with Industrial Revolution in which steam engine and printing press replaced manual labor.

Huge urban centers form; mass production concept is born; physical transport are intensified thanks to railroad, car and steamboat; natural resources begin to exploit as energy or raw material source; producer and consumer concepts are born.

Third Wave encompasses changes that world is living in last 50 years, which break paradigms that Second Wave imposed on us.

This Wave is at its peak and we surf more and more on it disarticulating structures through decentralization, demassification and personalization.

In Sopelia, we firmly believe that citizen empowerment through distributed generation is the means to achieve energy sovereignty at individual and national levels.

That is why we want to share this article published in a Spanish newspaper last Sunday, July 9th.

It puts name and surname to protagonists of a situation that until recently would have seemed to us of science fiction and that hopefully is more and more habitual.

In Germany Also Electricity Can Be Sharing.

All you need is Sun. All you need is Sopelia.