EngiMetric
Aerial view of rows of photovoltaic modules at a large solar farm

Stage 1 of 13 / Introduction

Define the site and the design basis

Fix the site, configuration, backup requirement, design life and study boundary before any number is computed.

  • Practitioner
  • 13 stages
  • 10 min
  • Solar PV and electrical storage
Development preview Solar PV and Battery: Full Engineering Workbench
Development preview. The calculations on this journey run on existing EngiMetric engines, but the journey text and scope have not completed independent engineering review. The route is excluded from search while it remains a preview.
Professional review required.The engines are implemented and unit-tested in this repository, but the journey copy, defaults and boundary still require review by a licensed engineer before publication. The route remains a noindex preview. Current verification state: Needs engineering review.

After this stage you can

Learning objectives
  • State the site, configuration, backup target and design life in a form the workbench can consume.
  • Explain why grid availability and export permission change the dispatch boundary.
  • Recognise which defaults are illustrative rather than measured.

The engineering

A PV study fails quietly when the boundary is vague. Is the site grid-connected, hybrid or off-grid? Is export allowed? Must critical loads ride through an outage, and for how many hours? Does the financial case include storage replacement? These are decisions, not outputs.

The workbench keeps one project state. Changing the design basis changes every downstream figure, including the dispatch schedule and the cash flow, so the stages cannot drift into mutually inconsistent answers.

Resource and tariff defaults are illustrative climate-zone and market shapes compiled for teaching. Replace them with site data before procurement. The report repeats that warning so a downloaded file cannot be mistaken for a bankable study.

EngiMetric / solar workbench

Your project, computed stage by stage

Loading the saved project state...

Preview screen. Inputs are saved in this browser only. Resource presets and tariffs are illustrative. Failed checks stay visible; a clean summary is not a stamped design.

Your deliverable for this stage

Capstone evidence

A design basis paragraph and a saved project state that later stages reuse.

Stage assumptions, limits and sources

Provenance

Assumptions

  • The learner owns the site coordinates, configuration and backup requirement.
  • Monthly resource and temperature inputs are planning values, not a measured weather year.
  • One project state is used for every stage and for the exported report.

Constraints

  • The workbench is a browser-side screening model, not a bankable simulation.
  • Study year is a single typical year, repeated with the stated load and tariff escalation.

Limitations

  • No measured weather file, site shading survey or horizon analysis.
  • No grid-code study, protection coordination or utility interconnection application.

Review status

  • Needs engineering review
  • Professional review is required before publication or use as a design basis.

Stage progress is stored in this browser only. The explanation and every limit on this page remain readable with JavaScript disabled; the calculators need it to run.

Stage kind: Introduction / Journey: solar-bess-screening / Stage: design-basis