PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative

The U.S. Department of Energy and NREL created the PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative to collect photovoltaic (PV) plant operation data in a secure, central database and to analyze trends.

Although many studies have examined field degradation rates of PV modules, little is known about degradation rates and performance across the entire U.S. solar fleet. This initiative is pooling data from many large PV installations to create a benchmark of cumulative performance and degradation rates for the U.S. solar fleet. This web page provides the most up-to-date results from the current PV Fleets dataset. Results are updated at least annually.

Who Can Participate?

The initiative is interested in receiving data from medium and large (>250 kW) PV installations, collected over at least 3 years, with performance data recorded at least every 15 minutes, together with on-site plane-of-array irradiance, meteorological data, and system specifications.

In the first phase of the project, NREL would like to hear from interested organizations to assess their data and ability to participate. Once participants have been selected and agreements put in place, full data collection and analysis will begin.

In exchange for contributing data to the project, participants receive a confidential, customized performance analysis performed by NREL using RdTools, a software tool for the analysis of photovoltaic time-series data. Data are protected by confidentiality agreements and anonymized for public sharing. This analysis will give the broader community an aggregate benchmark for the performance of the solar fleet in the United States.

Read more about the ongoing success of the PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative on the DOE website.

Data

PV Fleet Data Initiative, DuraMAT Data Hub (2022)

PV Fleet Degradation Insights - Data, DuraMAT Data Hub (2022)

Photovoltaic Data Acquisition Public Datasets, Open Energy Data Initiative (2022)

Photovoltaic Data Acquisition Visualization Map, Open Energy Data Initiative (2024)

Publications

PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative: March 2020 Methodology Report, NREL Technical Report (2020)

PV Fleet Performance Data Initiative: Performance Index-Based Analysis, NREL Technical Report (2021)

Photovoltaic Fleet Degradation Insights, Progress in Photovoltaics (2022)

Extreme Weather and PV Performance, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (2023)

Availability and Performance Loss Factors for U.S. PV Fleet Systems, NREL Technical Report (2024)

Cite the Data

D.C. Jordan, K. Anderson, K. Perry, M. Muller, M. Deceglie, R. White, C. Deline. "Photovoltaic Fleet Degradation Data, Version 2022.02.22," National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2022). https://doi.org/10.21948/1842958.

Contact

For more information or to discuss participation in the initiative, contact pvfleetdata@nrel.gov.


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