[Medium] How can PVWatts be emulated using pvlib?

[kandersolar]

PVWatts is a popular software tool for modeling the production of rooftop PV systems. It is simpler to use than software like PVsyst and SAM because it needs very little information about system configuration.

pvlib provides implementations of all the models underlying PVWatts v5, so it is possible to create your own version of PVWatts using pvlib. There are two main approaches for doing this:

1. Assemble all the underlying models like puzzle pieces, taking the output of one model (e.g. the irradiance transposition model) and using it as the input for the next (e.g. the cell temperature model). Once you string all the pieces together, you will have a complete PVWatts emulator.
2. Instead of putting the puzzle pieces together manually, you can use pvlib's ModelChain to connect them all together for you.

Useful links:

• https://pvlib-python.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/generated/pvlib.modelchain.ModelChain.with_pvwatts.html
• PVWatts v5 User's Manual: https://doi.org/10.2172/1158421