Full Title: Abbreviated Final Technical Report for the Energy Resilience Cost and Performance Tool: The Value of Solar Energy
Author(s): Dan Olis
Publisher(s): National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Publication Date: December 7, 2023
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems’ ability to provide behind-the-meter resilient backup power is not recognized or correctly valued. The diurnal and intermittent nature of solar power has led facility owners, policy makers, and developers to incorrectly discount the ability of solar PV to provide backup power for critical loads. To begin to address this, this project developed a software tool to assist stakeholders in quantifying the resilience benefits of solar energy when included in backup power systems. This tool was integrated into NREL’s existing REopt energy systems technoeconomic screening tool, a free, online web tool. The project team developed requirements, developed resiliency estimation code, designed and developed the web tool user interface, performed validation and user testing, and publicly released the tool.