[Medium] Calculate output of a PV system

[cwhanse]

Explore using pvlib's ModelChain to model a PV system and calculate a year of output. ModelChain provides some automation to the modeling process, from solar position to POA irradiance to electrical power. Alternatively, you can build the model chain by choosing among the functions pvlib provides.

Step 1. - Copy and run the code in pvlib's Introductory Tutorial. This code shows how to model output of a one-module PV system with a microinverter, in five different locations, using weather from PVGIS. The first half of the tutorial code uses pvlib's functions, the second half runs a ModelChain.

For the following steps, it is useful to select one of the locations from the tutorial and remove the other locations.

Step 2. - Repeat mc.run_model and examine mc.results. Plot one of these results, for example, poa_global which is plane-of-array irradiance. Make a scatterplot of POA irradiance vs. AC power. What other plots can you make from the ModelChain results?

Step 3. - Change the weather to model a year of clear-sky irradiance. Hint: in the calculation using ModelChain, a pvlib Location is defined. Location has a method get_clearsky that returns clear-sky irradiance. You will need to replace the irradiance in the weather DataFrame with values from the clear-sky model.

Plot the resulting POA irradiance and AC power.

Bonus Challenge - The Introductory Tutorial models a one-module PV system, using the Sandia module, temperature and inverter models. Change the calculation to use the CEC module model by selecting a different module. Use pvlib.pvsystem.retrieve_sam('CECMod') to select a module with CEC model parameters. Assign the module parameters to module_parameterswhen thePVSystem` is defined.