Introduction
Charts Mode on the Sitemark platform offer visual graphics on the results of your inspection. They are a great way to quickly gain insights into your results and find areas to deep dive into.
While they are not required for the charts to work we high recommend setting up Regions on your site to utilise the full power of the charts.
To set up regions on your site, you can use this support article to guide you through the process.
Charts Mode
To access the charts view of an operation, first navigate to a completed operation. In the top right corner of the screen you will seen the charts button indicated below.
On the left side of the charts view you will find the different graphs that are available that cover different areas of the results.
Each time when you click on a certain chart, you will get the detailed view of that chart at the right side. When hovering your mouse cursor of the chart elements, the platform will also pop-up the exact figures.
When you have defined some regions on your site, you will get a detailed view per region. This might give you very useful information about your site and how your site is performing.
Loss estimation
For the loss estimation feature to work in the Charts view, you will need to have the following information entered into your site properties:
Feed in tariff
Photovoltaic power potential (PVOUT)
Panel Maximum Power (Pmax)
More info needed about the site properties, please check this article.
As soon as you have completed the site properties, the loss estimation in the Charts view will update and show the new information.
The total loss estimation is the sum of all loss estimations from the separate solar panels which have a thermal anomaly. The loss estimation for a separate panel is calculated in the following way:
(% Panel loss * Panel Maximum Power) * Photovoltaic power potential
The platform is using the photovoltaic power potential (PVOUT) to calculate the MWh/year loss. Together with some other statistical data, the MWh/year is converted into CO2 loss and financial loss, which is shown in the loss estimation.
*The CO2 is calculated using an worldwide average coming from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. If you are curious to know what it is the status in your country, have a look here.
The major benefit of the loss estimation is to understand what regions of your site are underperforming. It is useful because it factors in the severity of the anomalies not just the number. Therefore, it can be used to prioritise the most important issues and the ones that are going to bring the biggest benefit in fixing.
Historical Analysis
If you've done previous solar inspections on the site, you can analyse the historical evolution of your site with the use of historical analysis charts.
The first card highlights the percentage of anomalies that are present on a module that also had a problem in the last inspection. This is called recurrence. Recurrence grants extra evidence that there's a physical problem causing the thermal anomaly and thus is worth looking into.
If you click on the historical analysis card, a more detailed chart will pop up on the right of the screen. This stacked area chart shows how your site evolved over time. You can easily see if the total number of anomalies increased over time, and what types of anomalies are responsible for that.
The screenshot below shows a site where the number of hotspots and string issues increased, while suffering less from PID.
Note that these insights are only available if you have the solar site subscription, as the data from several inspections has to be fused on a module level.
Anomalies
The anomalies chart shows you how many issues you have for every type of anomaly. This allows you to better understand what the most significant thermal phenomenons are on your site. You can also compare different regions to check if certain issues relate to specific areas of your site. For example if one area has one brand of module and this area is more prone to a certain type of anomaly.
You can learn more about thermal anomaly types in this support article.
Causes
The causes chart shows you the different causes on your site and the number of solar panels affected with those causes. So you have an understanding about what is happening on your site.
Once you understand what is causing the thermal problems and where you find them on your site, it's much easier to act on them. Causes will help you to decide if you need to replace your panel or if you just need to cut the vegetation.
You can learn more about thermal anomaly types in this support article.
Severity
The severity chart allows you to have a quick overview of distribution of the anomaly severities. It will help you to understand how significant the problems are on your site and how they relate to the different regions of you site. We defined 3 types of severity which we apply to all thermal anomalies we identify on your site.
Mild - Issues which require no immediate action, but are esssential to monitor over time. For example, a hotspot with a delta T < 5ºC)
Serious - Panels that show issues and should be replaced during the next maintenance. For example, a single bypass substring.
Critical - Panels generating significant loss and should be acted upon as soon as possible. For example, a string issues.
You can learn more about Severity types in this support article.
(Multi) Hotspot Delta
This chart shows you how critical your hotspot/multi hotspot issues are. Hotspots below 5ºC do not represent a significant loss and can be monitored over time. Hotspots of more than 20ºC should be replaced as soon as possible as they represent high energy losses and can in some instances lead to full string failures and are a significant fire hazard.
You can learn more about hotspots in this support article.