Accurate and confident energy production estimates are central to the efficient financing of solar energy projects. In 2019, DNV issued a white paper on the validation study of our own preconstruction energy assessments for utility-scale solar projects. One key finding from our previous study was that utility-scale solar projects, on average, were underperforming expectations by 3.1%, on a weather-adjusted basis.
We continue to invest in validating our preconstruction solar energy assessments against actual operating data in a process of continuous improvement. Since 2019, we have identified three methodology refinements that can reduce this shortfall: terrain, sub-hourly clipping and wind stow. Our new white paper is the addendum to our 2019 Solar Energy Assessment Validation Study and expands on the previous paper to evaluate the impact of subsequent methodology refinements.