Today at Intersolar 2009 in Munich, Fat Spaniel announced its partnership with METEOTEST, a provider of meteorological data for more than 20 years. METEOTEST’s solar radiation information is based on satellite data, and provides plant managers with insights about sunlight availability related to geographical locations. The partnership will integrate METEOTEST’s data services with the Fat Spaniel Insight PlatformTM, providing low-cost replacement option for on-site weather sensors for small PV plants. The investors, owners and plant operators who rely on Fat Spaniel for portfolio plant management will gain highly accurate third-party solar resource data, and will be able to effectively assess compliance with contract guarantees and calculate that the return on investment is being met.
“By giving our customers access to METEOTEST’s wealth of solar radiation data, we will be helping even the smallest PV solar plants assess operations where the expense of onsite weather collection solutions may be prohibitive,” said Christiaan Beekhuis, founder, president and CTO of Fat Spaniel. “Our collaborative efforts are made possible by the flexibility of the Fat Spaniel open platform, and our customers will be able to easily access and use the meteorological data within Fat Spaniel’s web-based portal service.”
“The Fat Spaniel-METEOTEST partnership gives us a very cost-effective channel for delivering meteorological data services to the people that can put this information to great use,” said Jan Remund, Solar Energy Product Leader at METEOTEST. “By integrating recent solar radiation and weather data with Fat Spaniel’s comprehensive PV management services, plant managers will be able to better evaluate performance as recently as one-hour ago. We’re excited to be able to leverage our data services to benefit the global renewable energy markets.”
The METEOTEST data will first be introduced to Fat Spaniel customers across Europe, including the active and leading photovoltaic markets in Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Greece. North American solar radiation data will be made available at a later stage to Fat Spaniel’s customers in North America. Eventually, the partnership may also help grid operators in all of these markets better understand how much energy they can expect from solar energy systems based on forecasted meteorological data.
Fat Spaniel’s Insight Manager is an industrial-grade, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) renewable energy plant management system which lets users see a portfolio of PV power plants at a glance, determine each plant’s current states of health, see aggregated production and greenhouse gas statistics, inspect event logs and fault information, and drill down for more performance detail.
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Tags: Intersolar, meteorological, satellite data, solar energy