Installation types

The first piece of project data is the installation type. It decides which fields appear in the rest of the steps (an off-grid installation, for example, has no grid tariff) and how the energy balance is done.

Self-consumption with export

Grid-connected. What the modules produce and the client does not consume at that moment is exported to the grid. This is the most common case for homes.

• The savings from self-consumption and the export income are assessed (with or without simplified compensation; see Compensation and export).
• You can set an export limit: power above it is curtailed and not paid.

Self-consumption without export

Grid-connected, but without exporting: the installation limits its production so as not to inject. The energy that can be neither consumed nor stored is counted as curtailment. It is common in shops and industry when exporting is not wanted or not possible to process.

Self-consumption with battery

Grid-connected with storage. The battery charges with the solar surplus and discharges when consumption exceeds production. With the backup strategy it also reserves energy for grid outages.

Details of the management in Energy balance and battery and of the equipment in Batteries.

Off-grid installation

No grid. Production, battery and consumption must balance on their own.

• There is no tariff, export or import: surplus is curtailed and what is missing is uncovered deficit, recorded hour by hour.
• Automatic sizing uses a technical criterion: days of autonomy (3 by default), a safety margin on the battery (1.15 by default) and an overall efficiency from modules to consumption (0.75 by default), and looks at the worst month of the year. They are adjusted in Advanced settings.

Summary