Desk Top/Site Survey for Solar PV
- Our Site Survey starts with our FREE Desktop Survey.
Solar Site survey is an important process during Solar Installation. It provides crucial information when designing the Solar plant. And ensures Solar PV system is properly designed to suit user requirements.
Please fill in the forms provide for you on the Domestic and Commercial drop-down pages and ensure you give us all the necessary questions we asked for on the forms. Especially the full address of where the property to be installed upon is located and state any important landmark near your property. This will help us identify your property on Google Earth Map which will in turn help us in carrying out the initial evaluation of the Solar capability of your property as well as found out if your property is actually good for solar investment without your having to spend any money at this stage.
- Site Survey
Once you have agreed to go on with your Solar Installation after our Desk top Survey has shown that your property is a potential candidate for solar installation a physical Site Survey will then be organised at the property to confirm our findings.
The 3 important factors considered during a Site Survey are:
- Feasibility – Is the Solar system implementation feasible?
- Viability – Does the Solar installation provide financial benefits in the long run?
- User requirements – Are user requirements properly understood?
A site survey helps understand the above 3 aspects in detail. Analysing these 3 factors helps in the proper design and implementation of the Solar PV system.
How we carry out A Solar Site Survey?
We consider the following things during a Site survey:
- Roof Orientation and Shading Analysis- Helpful in in identifying the suitable location solar Panel installation.
- Roofing Details – Study the roofing details to install the right solar PV system.
- Load Analysis – Helpful to understand the energy needs of the building.
- Solar PV System usability check – To assess the accessibility of the solar panels by the user.
- Financial Analysis – To understand the financial viability of the project.
Solar PV Orientation (Azimuth)
This is an important activity to design a proper Solar PV system. The direction the solar panels installed, and the sun path has a direct impact on the light incidence. Solar panels need to be installed in the right direction to get maximum solar exposure and this ensures maximum solar irradiance (insolation) on the solar panels.
Shading Analysis for Solar Panels
To get the optimum output from the Solar PV system the solar panels need to be nearly shade free.
Shading Analysis is done to ensure the solar panels are nearly shade free.
We can use any of the methods below to carry out the Shading Analysis our choice will depend on the type and size of the installation you require
- Solar shading tools.
- Physically study the movement of sunlight. i.e studying the way the sunlight moves over time in a day.
- Analyse the neighbourhood to ensure there are no obstructions that creates shade.
Other ways to ensure shade free solar irradiation:
- Trackers are used to track the sun’s path to actively capture light more sunlight.
- Shifting to an alternative location
- Using Microinverters -They are attached to individual solar modules to optimize electrical output.
Roof Structure Analysis for Home Roof Top and Commercial installation
The Solar PV system we shall installed will be customized to suit the roof structure of your building. Some of the key areas considered are:
- The rooftop dimensions (surface area)
- Rooftop feasibility
- Roof Inclination
- Roof Direction
- Construction material of the roof type
If the rooftop is not suitable for your building then ground mounting options can also be considered. We shall ask you to Consider ground mounting options if we feel rooftop options are not feasible.
Following are the rooftop details collected to get the most out of Solar PV system t be installed:
- Coordinates of site (Latitude & Longitude) ( Optional )- We can get this, once you give us the full address of your property by using Google Earth Map ( It does not matter where your country and town or village is located in sub-Saharan African. Please remember to give a prominent land mark (Schools, hospital etc) that is neareat to your property.
- Building ownership especially (Owned / Leased / Rental) especially the Lease option Financial Option is to be considered.
- Details of lease structure (if leased) (Lease period, No of parties etc.)
- Building Roof Height / Number of Floors
- Roof type ( Flat/ Inclined)
- (sheet thickness if available)
- Shadow free Rooftop Area Available for Solar (in Square Feet) Approximate.
- Maximum Load Capacity of the Roof – if available (kg/m2)
Load Analysis
Understand the current electricity utilization and the prospective power usage with Load AnalysisIt provides valuable information for the kind of Solar system to deploy. It is done by collecting the load information of the major energy using appliances.
Before doing load Analysis, try to bring in efficiency into the system. This reduces the load and hence the solar output to be generated.
Following are some of details collected to understand the power requirements:
- Sanctioned Load from Electricity Board (kVA)
- Consumer category ( LT/ HT / kVA )
- Electricity price exclusive of taxes)
- Average monthly consumption (kWh/Units)
- Approximate Daytime Consumption ( kWh/Units ) (8 am to 5 pm)
- Daily Base Load (kVA)
- Average daily Power Cuts (hrs/day)
- No. of Non-Operational days in a week
- Total Non-operational days in a year (including holidays and weekends)
- Base load on non operational days (kVA)
ENERGY AUDITING
Details of the electricity consumption are collected to know the power consumption pattern . (as indicated in the table below)
This helps in designing the right Solar PV system to suit the power requirement of the Client.
Installing a grid tied or off grid system are based on the user requirements and power usage.
| Month |
Total Electricity Consumption ( Units /month) |
Month |
Total Electricity Consumption ( Units /month) |
| Jan | July | ||
| Feb | August | ||
| March | Sept | ||
| April | Oct | ||
| May | Nov | ||
| June | Dec |
Solar PV System Usability
The site analysis helps to have the solar pv system installed with user convenience in mind. From a usability point of view consider:
- The location of items like inverter, battery backup, distribution box etc
- The way Solar PV system is connected with the existing electrical system.
Financial Analysis
Things to consider are financial incentives, government subsidies, the ROI etc.
Look at the Net Metering option where surplus power generated from the Solar is supplied to the DISCO(Power distribution companies). The DISCO credit the user for the extra power supplied.
If you are looking to install a Rooftop Solar system, look no further, BrightStar Solar can help you to get a proper site survey done so that you get the best out of your Solar PV system.