Is a solar installation working at its full potential or not? This question is more frequently asked these days either by solar farms operators, venture capitalists willing to invest in renewable energy or companies specialized in operations and maintenance. Comparing irradiance data observed from the ground with data coming from relevant geostationary satellite should provide the answer. e-SPACE Monitoring aims at delivering PV operators with a permanent PV performance assessment on line service. Through a SAAS platform, operators will access data based on measures correlation between a stand-alone ground-based solar irradiance measurement sensor and satellite data coming from geostationary meteorological satellites completed by Sentinel 4 & 5 satellites and Copernicus services. By using data analysis algorithms, e-SPACE Monitoring’s personalized service will be able to point out discrepancies between the solar data measured on site and the plant’s actual solar production. This information will be used by plant operators to set up personalized Key Performance Indicators showing whether a solar installation is working at its full potential or not and improve the Operations & Maintenance of their PV installations. In the coming years, e-SPACE Monitoring will enable REUNIWATT to take advantage of the tremendous growth of the installed solar base worldwide and resulting PV monitoring market. REUNIWATT has a huge opportunity to market a service that will benefit thousands of solar operators globally and contribute to the development of solar power efficiency. The commercialization of the e-SPACE Monitoring will make REUNIWATT the first European company and a worldwide leader in this field with an estimated turnover of about 20 million euros and the creation of 35 new high-level jobs in Europe by 2023.

TRUST-PV will demonstrate increase in performance and reliability of PV components (e.g. module O&M friendly design, inverter enabled O&M solutions, aftermarket coatings, extended testing beyond standard) and PV systems (e.g. more accurate yield models and assessment, data-driven mitigation measures from monitoring and advanced field inspection, reliability of novel system concepts such as floating PV) in large portfolios of distributed and/or utility scale PV. The TRUST-PV results will be tested and demonstrated from fab to field and all data gathered along the value chain will flow into a decision support system platform with enhanced decision-making using AI. The innovation at component level in TRUST-PV will be driven by the needs of stakeholders operating in a later stage of a PV project, i.e. Asset managers, EPC and O&M operators. TRUST-PV PV modules will thus become O&M friendly and inverter will enable rapid and cost-effective field inspection. The innovation at system level will fully exploit the digitalisation of the PV sector by linking 3D design with BIM concepts, developing more accurate models for yield assessments, and closing the gap between performance and failure detection through monitoring and field inspection. The innovation at the point of connection is based on the deployment of tailored strategies for the residential sector (better observability of performance with cost-effective monitoring solution, use of storage to enable renewable energy communities) and the utility sector (e.g. combination of advanced forecasting with storage and regulation through power plant controllers) with the final aim of improving the hosting capacity and increase stability. Finally, in TRUST-PV we envision a path of circular economy which enhances disposed components/material recovery for further use in the industry, to support progressive steps of plant repowering, aimed at increasing their production and lifetime without requiring additional land.