In the last few years, asset owners, asset managers, independent engineers and academics have reported underperformance across their solar asset portfolios as compared with pre-construction P50[1] energy production estimates. One potential contributing cause of this underperformance is overly aggressive availability assumptions in pre-construction estimates. The “market standard” availability assumption for solar projects in the US market is 99% and includes equipment and well as grid availability. Recent reports[2] have shown that 99% is achievable but not necessarily typical for solar projects, and Natural Power has conducted an independent availability audit of a portfolio of US projects, further validating these conclusions.
11 Mar 2024 .
A data based assessment of solar project availability in the United States
