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Review and validation of Solcast historical and TMY data

207 site bankability study validates Solcast irradiance data

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The International Energy Agency projects that 30% of all electricity will come from solar PV by 2050. As global solar capacity increases, the need for reliable data analytics and trusted monitoring systems in the energy market is growing rapidly.

Leveraging global weather data, satellite imagery and machine learning, Solcast, a DNV company provides irradiance and weather historical and forecast data to over 60,000 users globally. This data is used in the management, planning and operations of over 300GW of PV assets around the world. This study reviewed Solcast’s historical data across 207 measurement sites distributed globally and across climate zones and found the data to be of high quality and suitable for use in project assessment and financing.

The study builds on work completed as part of DNV's due diligence before acquiring Solcast in early 2023. A global team of DNV experts completed the study to make it available for publication, noting that the Solcast bias is considered low and there are limited variations between different regions and climatic zones for both GHI and DNI.