How does this help?

When we create financial models for PV power plants, we simulate their performance using hourly data for the amount of sunlight they receive. But when the actual weather conditions have more fluctuations in sunlight within an hour, the models can’t account for all the energy produced during those moments of high sunlight. This is especially true for systems with high DC to AC ratios. This can lead to overestimated energy production estimates of up to 5%. In this study, we propose a way to compensate for this error by adjusting the model’s hourly energy output simulations based on irradiance with a discount function that accounts for the difference in useful sunlight between hourly averages and sub-hourly sampling rates.