Our Product Range – from Project Development to Operations

Reuniwatt focuses on energy meteorology and related products and services. Get an overview over the many applications of our products through life cycle of solar power plant in the following article.

Forecasting and Monitoring Services for Solar Power

Since founding the company in 2010, our proficiency in meteorological services for the renewable energy industry has led us to support many projects all around the globe. We believe in humanity and its capability make the world more sustainable through research, creativity and perseverance. In 2019 we are proud that our products and services are a reliable part of many solar energy, hybrid and wind-energy based projects. As a major part of our customers comes from the renewable energy sector, we’d like to focus on what you need and give you an introduction to our products and services from your perspective – through the life cycle of a solar power plant.
Tracking the cloud movement, calculating the local irradiance levels and estimating the output power are the three main tasks our tools achieve, which are a necessity for nowadays solar industry. A main requirement is the coverage of different time horizons, which are used at different stages of the project: Past, present and future values can be relevant according to different objectives, from site evaluation, performance monitoring to energy trading. All three time-horizons are part of our portfolio.
Thirdly, the method of data collection can vary according to the targeted surface area and time horizon, and also overall purpose of the resulting calculation: Input data can be retrieved from our satellite-based services or from local measurements with our field proven devices. Both options are available worldwide, and should be chosen according to your requirements. While the data from five geostationary satellites delivers a continuous dataset resistent to errors, local measurements with one of our sky cameras or sensors provides an unmatched accuracy for realtime monitoring and short-term forecasts.
All our products and services are guaranteed the support from our skilled team through the duration of the service contract – if you want we support you through the full project life cycle.

Our products and services at a glance

Reuniwatt is offering different tools and services for the renewables industry. Our offer includes a range of high quality devices for industrial and research purposes. Industrial grade, weather-proof quality combined with the highest grade technical components allow for the use under any climatic conditions with minimal maintenance.

• With Solar InCell™ Reuniwatt is providing a standard equipment of the solar industry in the highest grade quality: A sensor for local irradiance monitoring. The real-time solar resource evaluation service through a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform gets fine-tuned through comparison with satellite data issued from meteorological satellites. The result: The most complete and best quality data that a ground sensor can provide.
• Our expertise in meteorology takes the center stage when it comes to our next technical devices: All-Sky Cameras.
  Reuniwatt offers two different kinds of sky imagers, Sky InSight™ and Sky Cam Vision. Sky cams in the energy sector are typically used to provide intraday solar irradiance forecasts, which are necessary to manage the photovoltaic power penetration, optimize storage and reserve power – a must for hybrid power plants – and fulfill the requirements of the grid operator. They`re also a must for energy trading on the day-ahead and intraday market and allow to optimize bids on both.
  Sky InSight™ is using the infrared thermal spectrum, which allows an accurate forecast of the cloud movements and upcoming GHI even before sunrise.
  Sky Cam Vision uses the visible light spectrum. They are fully functional even offline and therefore perfectly adapted to deliver their best performance at isolated and remote locations. Embedded computers allow for the calculation of different cloud parameters with high accuracy.
  Both devices have been installed all around the globe at more than 50 locations and are showcasing their proficiency in cloud detection and as reference tools on-site, for renewable energy projects and also in a broad range of research applications and meteorological studies. Our forecasts created from the data of a locally installed skycam will be calculated using our InstaCast™, HourCast™ or DayCast™ software, depending on the requested time horizon. Both our all-sky imagers have recently been presented in more detail.
• As an alternative or a way to complete local measurements, Reuniwatt is also offering specialised satellite-to-irradiance services in our SunSat™ range. SunSat™ allows for historical time series and realtime data for monitoring . It provides accurate and reliable data for already monitored or unmonitored PV plants and can be more accurate than local measurements if the targeted surface area rather large (beyond 25km of diameters). SunSat™ will help you detect any instrumental failure or soiling immediately by comparing actual power generation and satellite estimation. No hardware installation is required, which makes the SunSat™ range also more economical.
  Last but not least, our latest release, SunSat™ Digital Twin, is a reliable and handy monitoring tool for solar asset managers, providing an overview of your complete solar fleet and making it easy to detect any performance issues at a glance or get good-looking historical data for your reports.

Perfect conditions from the beginning

After working for a decade with the solar energy industry, we have a broad experience in accompanying projects worldwide in all different stages of their development. Our product range graphics brings together the phases of a product with our supporting products and services.
During the project development, identifying the most adequate site does require taking a look back at the long-term irradiance history of the location. SunSat™ time series is the best choice for this task, offering you the information you need based on high-quality satellite data.
On-site measurements might be the next step to reassure you and guide your further planning. For this measurement campaign, there’s no better tool than Solar InCell™. The results might also be a relevant validation for PV project developers, confirming or rejecting the site’s bankability. This could be further approved by forecasts backtests, to approve a suitable design for the given location.
This data will also be a relevant input for design and engineering – especially on-site measurements with Solar InCell™ are a must. It is also capable of measuring irradiance in the tilt of the panels, or GTI (Global Tilted Irradiance), as well as temperature and air humidity, and gives you all the input you need to evaluate your decisions, also during pre-testing and in the construction phase.

Optimising Operations through monitoring

Once a power plant is operational, forecasts play an essential role in adapting your daily operational schemes to the actual weather conditions and PV performance.
Most obviously, if more than one kind of power generation is involved, your variable PV share has to be coordinated with the other sources and storage units. For hybrid plants, intra-hour forecasts avoid curtailment and increase the relative PV share in electricity production. With InstaCast™, you can predict your PV production for a 30-minute horizon at a 1-minute granularity. This will improve the revenue of PV-Diesel systems and lead to lower fuel consumption. Forecasts can be tailored to the specific load profile and help manage the spinning reserve better.
Positive financial outcomes can also be expected when applying forecasts for scheduling and trading, especially for Intraday and Day-ahead data (HourCast™ and DayCast™). These forecasts also allow conformity with given PPA requirements. Forecasting time horizons can always be adapted to your individual needs.
During the operational phase, monitoring plays an equally important role as forecasting. Especially Asset Managers and regular monitoring operations as a part of O&M rely on realtime performance evaluation. Both, on-site measurements and satellite-based data can deliver the relevant information to the question: Is this solar power plant working as it should? A quick and easy detection of any kind of malfunction allows you to respond immediately. Realtime monitoring with SunSat™ live and/or on-site measurements is your reassurance that everything is in order and working as it should.

More than Renewables

We will accompany your renewables project from the early planning phase until the end of the PPA.
But photovoltaics is not the only field of application for our meteorological expertise. Other applications include wind energy projects, which we can provide with relevant meteorological data and forecasts, Space and Defense projects, and research institutions.
As experts in cloud detection and solar irradiance estimation, we will cater for the needs of your project and your institution, and recommend you the right product to suit your needs. Don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation.