NEW APPROACH FOR THE DESIGN OF LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC PLANTS WHICH TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THE INTEGRATION OF PROJECT DATA, TOOLS AND COST ANALYSIS THROUGH THE DIGITALIZATION OF THE PROCESSES

摘要

Digitalization goes beyond business and is entering in various technical and social activities through tools and technologies. The aim of this paper is to show how the digital transformation can be applied also in the photovoltaic business describing what we call Conceptual Design. The first part of the paper describes the main steps of the conceptual design process: the evaluation of the main project data such as site constraints and main equipment, definition of the main parameters of PV (Photovoltaic) configuration like DC/AC and Ground Cover Ratio (GCR) and the research of the final configuration with minimum Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The second part explains how the optimization tools will be digitalized and automatized describing criticalities, risks and opportunities. The last part shows the benefits of digital transformation in term of design timing reduction and better control of project assumptions and results checking their coherence and feasibility.