Vela Solaris Brochure

Vela Solaris

New Technology meeting neeeds This Swiss company has developed a solar simulation and design software that shows what solar thermal technologies are needed to most efficiently meet client demands.

ENERGY LEADERS TODAY T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R C A P TA I N S O F I N D U S T RY

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Harnessing the Vela Solaris uses complex software, presented in an easy-touse format, to provide clients with the latest energy information to help keep customers on the cutting edge of energy efficiency.

Sun

1. A Vela Solaris employee designs a heat pump system for a client. Photo courtesy of Vela Solaris.

2 Energy Leaders Today

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by Joel Cornell

The global movement towards solar energy has been dynamic and swift, especially in the past few decades. Through the introduction of their solar simulation and design software Polysun, the Switzerland-based Vela Solaris has been meeting the need for solar energy data and modeling around the world since 2007.

Although alternative sources of energy have been utilized for many years now, only recently has the idea of maintaining one’s own home purely on solar energy become a reality. As people begin to learn more about and gain more access to sustainable and energy efficient technologies, the need to obtain such technology and training is becoming a very mainstream market for corporations, universities and individuals alike.

Polysun is a line of software services that provides data for anyone seeking to optimize their photovoltaic systems, or simply wanting to discover exactly what solar thermal technologies

they would need in order meet the demands of their clients. Their product range includes all the tools their clients need to design, optimize and simulate their systems in the field.

Their software covers an increasing amount of diversity, including heat pumps, solar thermal, solar cooling, photovoltaic systems and many complex hybrids in between. A hybrid system could be the combination of photovoltaic and solar thermal, called PVT, or a combination of heat pumps and solar energy.

“Our main customer base ranges from architects looking to open up their designs to better solar optimization to construction firms and solar panel developers looking to easily create optimal sales and quotes to suit any customer,” said Vela Solaris’ Director of Marketing Simon Geisshuesler. “We do, of course, sell to any individual interested, but the market of those who design, build and manage their own personal solar array is not as big as it should be.”

Formerly a mechanical engineer working on Polysun before it was adopted and marketed by Vela Solaris, Simon has been

working with Polysun and programs like it for many years.

Polysun was first introduced in the market in 1992, originally to be used as a tool to predict the output of solar hot water and heating systems. Initially developed by the Swiss governmental institution Solartechnik Prüfung Forschung in Switzerland, Polysun has evolved into the software to use when working to optimize renewable energy sources in any scope or environment.

Thermal, electrical and now wind models are presented graphically tin one tool. Polysun offers a user-friendly and accurate prediction of the economical and ecological performance of such systems. The graphical user interface, as well as the internal software structure, is based on a modular system approach, allowing the combination and parameterization of different solar thermal heating systems.

The end goal is finding the optimal size for the main components for a solar thermal system where particular attention is given to the optimization framework.

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step one:

step two:

Selecting worldwide weather data

Choose your template

Selecting worldwide weather data • Reliable yield forecasts thanks to our global weather database, which includes over 8,000 weather stations worldwide • Calculation of weather data for user-defined locations • During the simulation the sun’s position is updated every four minutes • Accurate location selection helps build customer confidence

“This is the tricky part,” Simon said. “So many factors can influence the actual output of a solar energy system. It can be difficult to account for all of those while still leaving the program intuitive and easy to use.”

By integrating statistical weather data as a basis for the simulation, Polysun is able to predict the solar energy production as well as the heating demand of the building and the sanitary hot water. The weather data generator Meteonorm is included as an integral part of Polysun. Meteonorm produces a typical weather profile for a user-defined location interpolating between weather stations and satellite weather data.

While solar radiation, ambient temperature and humidity can be accurate enough for the prediction of solar systems (heating and photovoltaic), it is not directly suitable for the prediction of energy produced by wind generators. This is because so many minor local effects play a major role in daily wind distribution.

Vela Solaris is currently designing their software to allow the user to upload wind measurement profiles in Polysun to enhance the accuracy for the yield prediction.

Despite the high amount of technical data that goes in and out of Polysun, the program 4 Energy Leaders Today

Polysun provides users with the world’s largest and most comprehensive template selection. Polysun offers countless ready-made templates for the following systems: • Domestic hot water • Space heating • Swimming pool • Space cooling • Heat pumps • Photovoltaics • and more!

Or create your own hydronic template, have a template designed by your Polysun team • Predefined schemes make system design easier and save time

is incredibly user friendly. Installation and set up is as easy any other computer program and the user interface is familiar, intuitive and simple. Those already familiar with the more detailed aspects of renewable energy sources will be able to hit the ground running.

Vela Solaris also offers multiple personalized training sessions via the web several times each week, at times convenient for user in the U.S., Switzerland or further abroad. Vela Solaris’ key design engineers will walk the trainee through directly and answer any and all questions concerning the software.

Polysun’s line of software is also used as an educational tool, within a diverse range of university courses, as well as training for professional HVAC engineers.

“Because of the rise in the demand for solar energy systems, there is a great need to teach this kind of technology to well established HVAC engineers,” said Simon. “Polysun can be especially instructive here because the engineers already know the details about the dimensioning of pumps and heat exchangers and how to setup controllers, etc.”

Teaching solar energy topics with the use of Polysun is done in several universities in

Europe, the U.S. and Asia with different levels of intensity. Within this are two core markets: one focusing specifically on simulation tools and comparing the different tools available on the market, sometimes including in-house and non-commercial simulation software.

The second market consists of teaching general solar thermal topics, using Polysun as a simulation tool without going into the details of the simulation itself.

The general Polysun software can be broken down or aimed specifically at certain simulations as desired. Unique versions exist for the user for solar thermal, photovoltaic, heat pump and cooling systems.

Additional products can be customized for the prospective customer that combine any or all of these versions.

Within this, four different versions of Polysun exist: Standalone, Customized, Inside and Online.

Polysun Standalone is the most essential or basic version.

“One client we recently sold several licenses of the Standalone version to is an installer and planner of solar and geothermal systems,” said Simon. “Polysun helps him optimize solar yield and print system performance

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step three:

step four:

Definte your customers

Dimensioning the system

• Enter daily hot water consumption or yearly demand • Select the building characteristics from an extensive catalogue or you can define the heating demand or the oil/gas consumption • Accurate simulations even when little detailed information is available

• Polysun provides you with a comprehensive database of commercially available products. Our database is constantly updated and promptly made available to all users.

• Certified data guarantee the reliability of simulation and yield values generated.

step five: Dimensioning the system

• Automatic display of simulation results • Clear and detailed evaluations with PDF-reports instill confidence and trust in customers and support any subsidy applications.

• Displaying economic results (such as payback period, incentives, energy balance) is proof of your professionalism.

• Monthly and hourly results for all components make it possible to monitor energy flows.

• All results can be graphically displayed.

• Customer-specific reports build customer confidence and increase your sales opportunities Fall 2010 5

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reports and eventually help in achieving better sales. They will maintain an up-to-date advantage over the competition in selling their products by showing a landlord or client a professional Polysun sales report rather than somewhat more arbitrary results calculated with a spreadsheet.�

Polysun Customized provides the same end result as the Standalone version, but allows the customer to work directly with Vela Solaris engineers to tailor the software to their exact specifications or desires. Recent Vela Solaris customer Heliodyne is a provider of readymade solar thermal systems. They are using a version of Polysun Customized that is somewhat simplified, and has a personalized database set to include only their products.

Hydraulic schemes, catalogue databases and appearance are individually adapted to fit their needs. This gives Heliodyne’s dealers a useful tool and that competitive edge amongst other dealers.

Polysun Inside is the offspring of a successful partnership with Data Design System (DDS), an industry leader in CAD solutions. Polysun Inside works within DDS-CAD directly to provide instant data regarding the output of the digitally proposed solar system as the user designs the structures. This version is particularly useful for professional engineers and designers, who need instant data that can keep up with the many changes they make to their designs. It can take into account the planning needed for electrical installations, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and ventilation to provide even more specific results.

Polysun Online is a particularly useful asset that a company or firm can provide to their clients. All interaction with the program takes place online in a web browser, and can be easily incorporated into the structure of existing websites. Vela Solaris not only handles tailoring the program to the customer’s specific needs, but also integrates the software directly into the site for the client. To streamline the software for the end-user, who usually lacks training or familiarity with Polysun, most extemporaneous details are filtered out to provide an easier and faster experience.

Many utility companies are becoming obligated to provide a certain amount of renewable energy in their offerings. This could easily be achieved by giving their customers access to Polysun so that they can find out if renewable energy is the right choice to meet their energy needs. This would help widen the customer base of any utility company and also help spread the availability and use of renewable energies.

Polysun software is a tool that is both versatile and precise, two qualities that the burgeoning industry of renewable energy needs most. The tools and services that Vela Solaris provides are important factor in the global effort to help reduce CO2 emissions and introduce renewable and sustainable sources of energy into the mainstream market. ELT 6 Energy Leaders Today

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