Solar Software
25 terms in the solar software category.
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Aurora Sales Mode vs Design Mode
Aurora Sales Mode vs Design Mode describes the two working environments in Aurora Solar, the cloud platform founded in 2013. Sales Mode gives sales reps a simplified layout and proposal workflow, while Design Mode exposes the full engineering tools for detailed layouts, stringing, shading and permit-stage outputs. Installers choose a mode by project stage.
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Aurora Solar
Aurora Solar is a cloud-based solar design and sales platform founded in 2013 in San Francisco. Installers use it to model roofs from aerial imagery and LIDAR, run shading analysis, lay out modules, estimate production and build customer proposals. It is widely used for residential and small commercial projects in North America.
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AutoCAD Electrical
AutoCAD Electrical is Autodesk's electrical design toolset for AutoCAD, built for schematics and control drawings. It ships symbol libraries for standards such as IEC, IEEE and JIC, plus automatic wire numbering and report generation. Solar designers use it to draft single line diagrams, three-line diagrams and panel or conduit schedules for plan sets.
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Bluebeam Revu
Bluebeam Revu is PDF markup and collaboration software from Bluebeam, a Nemetschek Group company, built for construction and engineering documents. Solar engineers and plan reviewers use it to redline permit plan sets, measure drawings, apply stamps and track comments, often through shared Studio Sessions, during design review and resubmittal cycles.
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Energy Toolbase
Energy Toolbase is a commercial software platform for modeling the economics of solar and battery storage projects. It combines hourly energy simulation, utility tariff and time-of-use rate analysis, and battery dispatch modeling, including California's Net Billing Tariff. Commercial solar installers and EPCs use it to build customer savings proposals and storage business cases.
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EnergySage
EnergySage is an online US marketplace where homeowners compare quotes from pre-screened solar and battery installers and read educational guides. Founded in Boston in 2009, it publishes marketplace pricing reports drawn from quotes on its platform. Residential installers use it as a lead channel and must present clear, comparable system proposals.
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Helioscope
HelioScope (often written Helioscope) is web-based solar design and simulation software, created by Folsom Labs and now owned by Aurora Solar, used mainly for commercial rooftop and ground-mount PV. Designers draw arrays over site imagery, auto-string modules to inverters, run an hourly energy simulation, and export layouts as DXF files and PDF reports.
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Helioscope DXF Export
Helioscope DXF export is HelioScope's function for saving a solar layout, including module placement, keepouts and wiring, as a DXF file that AutoCAD and other CAD tools can open. DXF is Autodesk's Drawing Exchange Format, introduced in 1982. Drafters use the export as a base for permit and construction drawings.
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HOMER
HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) is energy modelling software that simulates and ranks combinations of solar PV, batteries, wind, generators and grid supply by net present cost. It began at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and HOMER Energy was acquired by UL in 2019. Engineers use HOMER Pro for off-grid and microgrid feasibility studies.
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HOMER Grid
HOMER Grid is commercial energy modeling software from HOMER Energy, part of UL Solutions since UL acquired the company in 2019. It sizes grid-connected solar and battery storage behind the meter by simulating dispatch against a site's time-of-use rates and demand charges. C&I solar developers use it to test battery savings before choosing a size.
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Meteonorm
Meteonorm is weather data software from Meteotest, a Swiss company, that generates Typical Meteorological Year files with irradiance, temperature and wind for any location. It blends ground stations with satellite data, and Meteonorm 8 was released in 2020. PVsyst bundles it as a weather source, so solar designers often use it for yield simulation.
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NSRDB / TMY3
NSRDB (National Solar Radiation Database) is NREL's free collection of satellite-derived hourly and sub-hourly solar irradiance and weather data for the Americas. TMY3 is a 2008 Typical Meteorological Year dataset for 1,020 US locations, built from older NSRDB records, that condenses many years into one representative 8,760-hour file for energy simulation in PVsyst or SAM.
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OpenSolar
OpenSolar is a cloud-based solar design and proposal platform, launched in Australia in 2018, that installers can use without per-user licence fees. It provides rooftop layout, shading estimates, financial modelling, and customer proposals, mainly for residential and small commercial projects. Installers use it during the sales stage, often handing permit drawings to separate engineering teams.
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PowerFactory (DIgSILENT)
DIgSILENT PowerFactory is commercial power system analysis software from DIgSILENT GmbH, Germany. Utility-scale solar developers and grid operators use it for load flow, short-circuit, harmonic and dynamic stability studies. These studies show compliance with grid codes such as the CEA (Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid) Regulations, 2007 in India.
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PVcad
PVcad (also written PV CAD or PVCAD) is solar design software that runs inside Autodesk AutoCAD rather than as a standalone program. The best-known version, from PVComplete, lays out PV arrays, estimates production with NREL PVWatts algorithms and drafts single-line diagrams and permit drawing sets, so solar drafters can stay in one CAD file.
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PVcase
PVcase is solar design software from a Lithuania-founded company, best known for PVcase Ground Mount, an AutoCAD plugin that automates terrain-aware layouts of fixed-tilt and tracker rows, cabling and bills of materials for utility-scale plants. The suite also includes PVcase Prospect for site screening and PVcase Yield for energy simulation, used by developers and EPC design teams.
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PVsyst
PVsyst is solar PV simulation software developed by PVsyst SA in Geneva, Switzerland, used to produce bankable energy yield assessments. It runs hourly simulations from weather data, module .PAN files, inverter .OND files, 3D shading scenes and loss settings to give P50 and P90 yields. Lenders, independent engineers and EPCs rely on its reports.
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PVsyst Project File (.PRJ)
A PVsyst project file (.PRJ) is the file PVsyst uses to store a project's site, weather file and simulation variants. Each variant, saved as a linked .VCx file, holds the system layout, module .PAN and inverter .OND references, shading scene and loss assumptions. Lenders' independent engineers request these files to audit bankable yield reports.
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RatedPower
RatedPower is a Madrid-based software company whose cloud platform, pvDesign, automates the design of utility-scale ground-mount solar plants. It generates layouts, tracker or fixed-tilt arrangements, cabling, roads, single line diagrams, bill of materials and preliminary yield. Developers and EPCs use it for fast feasibility and comparing layout options before detailed engineering.
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Revit MEP for Solar
Revit MEP refers to the mechanical, electrical and plumbing tools in Autodesk Revit, a BIM (Building Information Modeling) platform. Since 2013 they are part of a single Revit product. For solar, architects and MEP engineers model rooftop arrays, conduits and electrical rooms in the shared building model so clashes are caught during new-building design.
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SAM (System Advisor Model)
SAM (System Advisor Model) is free, open-source simulation software developed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It combines hourly performance modelling of PV, battery storage and other renewable technologies with detailed project finance. Developers, researchers and policy analysts use it to estimate energy output and cross-check yield and cost assumptions.
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SAM Financial Model
The SAM financial model is the cash-flow engine inside NREL's free System Advisor Model. It takes simulated hourly energy output and calculates LCOE, NPV, IRR, PPA price, debt sizing, tax credits and depreciation, including US MACRS schedules. Developers, analysts and policy researchers use it to test the economics of solar projects.
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SketchUp for Solar
SketchUp is a 3D modelling program from Trimble that solar designers use to build site geometry, including roofs, trees, parapets and nearby buildings. Models can be exported, for example via DAE or 3DS files, into tools such as PVsyst for near-shading simulation. It also produces customer-facing visualisations of proposed arrays.
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Solargis
Solargis is a solar resource database and software service from Solargis s.r.o., based in Bratislava, Slovakia. It derives irradiance (GHI, DNI, DIF) and temperature time series from satellite and weather-model data, and lenders and engineers use it for bankable energy yield assessments and P50/P90 production estimates on utility-scale projects.
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SolarPlus
SolarPlus is a cloud-based solar design and proposal software used by residential installers to lay out rooftop arrays, estimate production, and generate customer quotes. Like similar tools, its outputs are a sales starting point; a permit set for a US jurisdiction still needs engineering review against NEC 2023 Article 690 and local code.
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