A software program instrument developed by NIST, referred to as Current Worth of PhotoVoltaics, analyzes the financial and environmental impacts of rooftop photo voltaic know-how.
Credit score: B. Hayes/NIST
Whether or not it’s to dwell extra sustainably, lower your expenses or each, many individuals take into consideration including photo voltaic panels to their houses. Householders take into account numerous elements, together with which sort of photo voltaic panel may work greatest for them, when deciding whether or not the funding is value it.
Now, a web based software program instrument from the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Expertise (NIST) may also help reply householders’ questions. The software program is known as [PV]2 — Current Worth of PhotoVoltaics — and it analyzes the financial and environmental impacts of rooftop photo voltaic know-how. The instrument can help householders and even installers when evaluating rooftop photo voltaic photovoltaic techniques.
Photovoltaics are semiconductor supplies that convert daylight to electrical energy. They include particular person cells that kind photo voltaic panels. However how can householders know if the know-how is correct for them?
To assist reply this query, [PV]2 makes use of a way referred to as life-cycle price evaluation, which assesses the whole price of a construction, venture or product over time. It takes under consideration numerous prices and may establish essentially the most cost-effective choices for the long run.
The thought for the instrument got here from NIST economist Joshua Kneifel when he was contemplating putting in photo voltaic panels on his own residence just a few years in the past. “Photo voltaic installers had been offering some primary info on prices and financial savings primarily based on easy and generally nontransparent assumptions. I wished to find out whether or not putting in photo voltaic was a greater funding than merely investing that cash as a substitute, and no instrument accessible on the time may try this,” stated Kneifel.
He ran his personal calculations utilizing an Excel spreadsheet however realized the format wasn’t translatable for the common particular person. “I decided what was lacking was a instrument for a home-owner or photo voltaic installer to make use of to get standards-based, impartial financial evaluation of an precise quote to put in photo voltaic for a particular home. I wished to offer all the required particulars, accounting for all of the potential complexities, whereas simplifying the expertise for the person in a method that’s digestible,” stated Kneifel.
When customers entry [PV]2 on the net, they first encounter a touchdown web page that introduces them to the net instrument. The web page contains hyperlinks to a person information that gives a fast tutorial on how the instrument works.
The instrument performs the majority of the calculations and evaluation, so customers solely must have readily available two items of data: an precise photo voltaic quote — a value estimate from a photo voltaic installer — and an electrical invoice. If a person doesn’t have this stuff, they’ll enter an instance quote and electrical invoice from the touchdown web page as a way to receive a tough estimate.
As soon as they hit the beginning button, customers should undergo six steps, comparable to placing of their deal with or ZIP code, the electrical energy worth discovered on their invoice, details about the photo voltaic panel system, and any financial incentives for which they’re eligible. Customers don’t must know all this info; some steps comprise default info primarily based on the most recent analysis and information. The knowledge that customers enter just isn’t saved on a server or on the net utility, stated Kneifel, defending the privateness of a person’s private information.
“As soon as a person completes these steps, they hit the end button and get a breakdown of prices, electrical energy financial savings and carbon footprint related to the photovoltaic system. Graphs are additionally included, and the whole lot will be downloaded in a spreadsheet or PDF,” stated Kneifel.
[PV]2 makes use of the Financial Analysis Engine (E3), an utility programming interface (API) developed along with [PV]2 by consultants within the Utilized Economics Workplace at NIST.
“The brand new idea is to offer a generic API that could possibly be used because the ‘back-end’ calculation engine for a number of ‘front-end’ instruments, comparable to an internet utility,” stated Kneifel. “This simplifies and hastens future growth of recent instruments and minimizes time and value to keep up current instruments. The photo voltaic analysis instrument was an ideal use case to validate and present the capabilities of the generic financial API and the way it may be leveraged by different instruments that assess long-term tasks that require a life cycle perspective. For instance, any constructing or facilities-related venture focusing on power effectivity, sustainability or resilience may use E3 for the financial evaluation.”
The online utility went by way of beta testing earlier than changing into accessible for most people and acquired suggestions from beta testers, comparable to photo voltaic installers, householders who’ve just lately put in photo voltaic panels, householders who’ve thought-about however not but put in photo voltaic panels, and different instrument builders. [PV]2 may also be helpful for photo voltaic installers needing to offer a clear, impartial photo voltaic panel financial evaluation. “The hope is that the layperson can use this internet utility to do the identical evaluation I did to really feel comfy about my funding in photo voltaic,” stated Kneifel.
That is the preliminary model of the instrument and new options are into consideration; customers are welcome to joshua.kneifel [at] nist.gov (present suggestions) to additional enhance the instrument.
