After you have created a design, you can run performance simulations in order to estimate the energy production of the system you designed.
You can create multiple performance simulations for a design in order to assess the impact of simulation parameters on system performance. By default, Aurora will create performance simulations using Aurora's simulation engine, but you can change your settings to create a simulation using PVWatts. You are free to create additional simulations, as you see fit by clicking Add Simulation at the top of the screen.
Simulation Engines
Aurora currently offers two simulation engines: Aurora and PVWatts.
Simulation Parameters
By clicking Settings gear icon you can access the simulation settings, which let you specify a number of simulation parameters, including the simulation engine. Most of these parameters are specific to the simulation engine, so for more detail please refer to the respective sub-chapters.
Both simulations allow you to specify system losses, which are described in detail in the System Losses section.
Varying simulation parameters is a useful way of analyzing the performance of your system under different conditions.
Outputs
Both simulations produce the following outputs:
- A chart of the monthly energy production in kWh
- Annual energy production of the system in kWh
- Energy offset by solar in %
- Annual energy yield in kWh/kWp
- Performance ratio of the system
Additionally, you can download the monthly and hourly energy production of the system as a CSV file by clicking Export.
