RatedPower, the company behind pvDesign, a cloud-based software that automates and optimizes the analysis, design, and engineering of utility-scale photovoltaic plants at all stages, participated in the third edition of Energyear Portugal.

During her presence at the event, Alicia Herrera, Account Executive Iberia of RatedPower, explained to Review Energy why Portugal is considered one of the company's strategic markets.

According to Herrera, with a solid base in Spain, the company has a "privileged base" to target companies located in Portugal. Not surprisingly, the company's participation in Energyear Portugal was an opportunity to bring developers, EPCs and different partners in the renewable industry closer to pvDesign's new features.

She pointed out that the opportunities offered by the country for the PV industry are perfect because its geography is ideal in terms of sunshine. Herrera also added that the measures taken by the government to install more PV are a good sign for the sector.

"We have a large presence in Spain with many clients, but our strategy is global. Portugal is a nearby market and that is why we are privileged as we can address many companies in this country, that is also why we are here participating in Energyear Portugal", added Herrera.

Aligned with the current needs of the market, the company presented in the second quarter of the year four new functionalities that have allowed it to scale in an accelerated way in the photovoltaic market.

pvDesign: Four new tools to boost the photovoltaic market

The first milestone of these new features is the import of geospatial data for faster site prospecting. According to the company, PV developers can now speed up surveying through two tools: importing cadastral parcel geometries during the design process and importing the data of each parcel from the Enverus catalogue, the widest and deepest available on the market.

The second update relates to roadless designs. With this functionality, the company explains that it is now possible to generate roadless layouts. "By eliminating roads, a higher area fill factor is achieved. The location of the transformer station (TS) also changes. When the roadless option is selected, the TS will be placed as close as possible to the access point of the available area. This option is only available if the PV plant has only one TS, or if each area is less than 5 ha," says RatedPower.

A third update works with the equipment database. According to RatedPower, with this new solution, the library of structures, modules and inverters now includes 5,000 updated references, allowing a quick comparison of the energy production performance and LCOE of the chosen equipment.

The fourth and final functionality has seen the company focus on the grouping of low voltage zones. With this fourth update, RatedPower customers and users can now tell the software that certain available areas can share the low-voltage system. Previously, an inverter could only be contained in one area. This meant that if an area was too small, there could be unused structures due to DC/AC ratio restrictions. With this new functionality, an inverter can have structures in more than one zone, resulting in much higher peak power under certain conditions.

Along with this last functionality and the “no road” feature, RatedPower’s software now also allows its users to define the civil and power inputs per area. The company believes that this feature will increase the ability to customize the PV plant and achieve more installed capacity.

After its participation in Energyear Portugal, the company will continue its global strategy with a presence in the Energyear Tour in different countries in Europe but also in Latin America.

Listen and watch the full interview here: