Solar panel dataset released to help researchers

Researchers have developed a dataset from 1287 residential solar installations across Australia to help better understand how solar energy can be integrated into the grid.

Solar power researchers have traditionally used the power measurements from single residential solar PV systems to estimate the power generated within a city. Engineers from the Australian National University (ANU) and Fraunhofer-Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Germany have provided a freely available, quality-controlled and tuned dataset from residential installations across Canberra, Perth and Adelaide.

Presented in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, the dataset aims to provide a better representation of PV power generation across a city for researchers.

“For the first time, you are able to easily access data and do the sort of spatial analysis needed to manage solar integration into the grid in a controlled way,” study author Jamie Bright said.

“Now we’ve proved with this dataset that live reporting PV systems can significantly improve forecasting — solar forecasting companies are deploying our approach to a real operational industrial forecasting system.”

The dataset could also be used to help research into PV grid modelling, battery storage, optimisation and grid integration.

This is an edited version of an article published by the American Institute of Physics under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Gyula Gyukli