Automated solar collector installation design

#In recent years, solar power has become an increasingly important source of energy. Solar energy may be collected and harnessed in numerous ways, including through the use of solar collectors such as photovoltaic (PV) modules and solar-thermal heat and power collectors and converters. The size of these projects may vary tremendously—from single-family residential rooftops to sites exceeding one million PV modules.

#The cost, useful lifetime, energy generation and economic value of solar power plants is highly dependent on many complex and interrelated parameters including but not limited to: i) location, ii) weather, iii) physical obstructions that interfere with layout, such as a skylight, iv) non-physical site features such as property line setbacks or utility right-of-ways, v) physical obstructions that may cast shade on the system, vi) local building codes that set weight limits and fire safety protection, vii) environmental conditions such as design wind speed tolerance, viii) available mounting surface, such as the ground, a roof-top or a framework above a parking lot, ix) local, state and federal law, x) utility electrical interconnection requirements, xi) existing electrical equipment at a customer's worksite and xii) the customer's cost of electricity or energy. The task of designing and analyzing an efficient system that comports with these requirements can be complex, time consuming, and error prone, and may constitute a major cost of solar energy project development.

#A computer-based user interface for automating the design of a solar collector installation at a physical worksite is disclosed. The user interface may include a representation of at least a portion of the physical worksite. The representation may include one or more geometric objects, and one or more of the geometric objects may correspond to a physical, non-physical or other feature at the physical worksite. The interface may also include a control that may operate to classify the geometric object as an instance of a particular feature classification. The feature classification may be selected from a plurality of pre-existing feature classes and any particular feature classification may be associated with a specification, full or partial, of characteristics of the physical or non-physical feature. The characteristics may be those related to solar collector installation design. The interface may also provide a control operable to automatically generate at least a solar collector installation design for installation at the physical worksite. The design may be generated substantially or completely in accordance with one or more of the geometric object(s), the feature classification(s), and the specification(s) of characteristics of the physical feature associated therewith.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic isometric view of an example worksite for a solar collector installation containing roof, exhaust fan, and conduit features;

#FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a user interface containing a visual representation of the installation worksite of FIG. 1, including geometric objects corresponding to the roof, exhaust fan, and conduit features;

#FIG. 3 illustrates the user interface of FIG. 2, in which a first geometric object in the visual representation is being classified as a “roof” and thereby associated with a first set of feature properties and corresponding layout constraints;

#Computer aided design systems (CAD) have been in commercial use for many decades. CAD systems provide efficient methods to automate the creation, editing, presentation, and retrieval of design information. The power of CAD systems has been enhanced through the use of “knowledge-based” programming techniques whereby engineering and/or design rules can be formalized, encoded and executed to automate portions of the design process or to detect potential design errors. A common example of a knowledge-based system is the grammar checking function found in most commercial word processors whereby many rules of English grammar have been encoded and are automatically applied to text documents to highlight potential errors and suggest corrective action.

#The systems and methods described herein involve the application of knowledge-based CAD techniques for the automatic layout, evaluation, and optimization of solar energy system designs consistent with a large number of design constraints, such as the local site conditions, engineering rules, and building codes. A preferred embodiment is implemented as an integrated set of software customizations to an existing CAD system, such as AutoCAD®. Alternatively, the systems and methods described herein may be implemented as completely new standalone software program(s).

#A preferred embodiment of the invention described herein provides a system and method for designing solar collector layouts suitable for installation at a given worksite. The embodiment may include systems and methods to create and edit various data “objects” and to classify such objects as various types of pre-defined “features” with attendant properties and layout constraints. The classes or categories of features may include (i) physical worksite features such as walls, roofs and exhaust fans; (ii) intangible, non-physical worksite features such property boundaries, zoning boundaries, utility right-of-ways, flood plains, environmentally-sensitive areas, special seismic zones, and utility easements; and (iii) solar energy system components and arrangements. As part of or in addition to classification, the embodiment may include systems and methods to create, assign, and edit intrinsic and extrinsic properties to these objects. Intrinsic feature properties include those that are inherent to the object itself, such as height, weight and cost. Extrinsic properties include definitions of how objects interact with other objects. An example of an extrinsic property includes a “setback” provision that establishes the minimum distance (setback) between an object and any adjacent objects.