HOW TO USE THE ISRO SOLAR CALCULATOR FOR YOUR SOLAR PV PANEL DESIGN

 ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has developed a “Solar Calculator” Android App from here using your mobile browser. https://vedas.sac.gov.in/vedas/node/140

The .apk file will be downloaded. Install the same and give the app permission to access your location.

Open the APP and you will see this Screen. You can either use your GPS location by default or enter the Latitude and Longitude of the location you want to know the data on.

Click the Calculate Button- the App shows you the solar data for selected location.

This is a data app and gives you the amount of solar radiation available. From here a little bit more of Maths is required to work out the Solar Power sizing.

You have two options to work out the solar power sizing. Power based or Area based.

Power Based-

You work out the total amount of power you want to generate. And then size you Solar panels accordingly. For example, suppose, you need 4kWh of Power every day, then you must size your panels to meet that requirement.

Area Based-

Not all of us may have the luxury of exclusive spaces to generate all the power we need. In which, the terrace area that we have available may by and large dictate the Solar Panels we can install.

How to turn the ISRO data into a Solar Panel Design

We are working this for our office space – Green Sketch Consultants. We have a usable terrace area of approximately 90 Square meters.

Take the Annual Global Insolation- In case of Green Sketch’s location- it’s 1850 kWh/Sqm. This means that the Sun throws 1850 KW of power every hour on average per square meter of our Roof space. Which means our roof is getting 1,66,500 kWh per hour(That’s a LOT of power). But all doesn’t get converted into actual electricity.

That’s where we need to take the Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF). This tells you how much of the Sun’s power really get translated to usable power. This is influenced my many things such as Cloud cover, the tilt angle of the panel (more on that down below), cleanliness of the Panel, the heat, etc.

So if I buy a 1 kWp panel, then using the CUF of Chennai, 1392 kWh is produced annually.

1 kWp capacity Solar Panel occupies around 17 sqm of Roof Space. By Extension, Green Sketch’s Roof can accommodate Five 1 kWh Panels and will produce 6,960 kWh annually. 

The cost of the Solar Panels- that's a question for another day!

Want us to help you with you Solar Panel Design. Reach us