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“In large-scale solar, every penny counts, so it helps to stay up to date with every way to achieve better construction efficiencies, cost savings or improved LCOE. Here are some innovations and ideas that caught our eye this month.

STAR Comps to avoid Overcomps
Solar risk management firm kWh Analytics collaborated with 10 of the top 15 solar asset owners on a huge industry-wide energy validation study, the 2020 Solar Generation Index, analyzing over 30 percent of non-residential PV systems in the U.S. On average, systems underperformed their initial estimates by 6.3% on a weather-adjusted basis. Not great! The report concluded that performance estimates are systemically over-estimated. In parallel, kWh Analytics launched Solar Technology Asset Risk (STAR) Comps reports with leading sponsors and asset owners, including New Energy Solar and Captona. These will use industry data to validate solar production estimates on more than 1 GW of solar assets. Equipped with objective data and comparables through STAR, the solar industry can course correct and improve accuracy and certainty of its investment returns.”