Lifetime Energy
Solesca's Lifetime Energy export allows you to have monthly energy values for the lifetime of your project. We use the 8760 data, the Permission To Operate (PTO) date, the number of years for the project, unavailability, and degradation to calculate accurate monthly energy projections from the PTO date to the end of the project life.
To use lifetime energy, simply click lifetime under Energy exports. There, you can enter your PTO date, degradation, and unavailability assumptions.
You do not need to enter assumptions, Solesca assumes 0.64% degradation per year (https://www.dnv.com/publications/dnv-views-on-long-term-degradation-of-pv-systems/ (opens in a new tab)) and unavailability consistent with DNV recommendations (https://www.dnv.com/energy/webinar/watch/are-solar-availability-assumptions-too-optimistic-noindex/ (opens in a new tab)).
Note: Please reference an article that we wrote detailing why this is important and how you can add up to 1% more energy over the lifetime of your project by using these calculations: The Next Evolution in Solar Degradation & Unavailability (opens in a new tab).