The US Energy Department has announced nearly $4 million in funding for projects with a goal of setting data standards to assist the nation’s solar industry.
Currently, the solar sector in the USA relies on fragmented datasets released by various state energy departments and a limited number of private organizations in relation to project origination, grid integration, operations, and retirement. These datasets can vary greatly in terms of the quality and content, making it more difficult to accurately ascertain the potential of a market.
The Energy Department says using unified data standards to be developed under the Orange Button Initiative will enable the solar industry reduce market inefficiencies and result in lower costs for consumers.
“The SunShot Initiative’s Orange Button project will do for solar what the Green Button project did for energy use data and the Blue Button project did for health records: simplify and standardize solar data so that state governments, customers, utilities, financiers, solar companies, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders can exchange quality data,” states the Department.
Four organisations will be working on the project.
kWh Analytics will develop a data format translation tool that will instantly translate individual data formats into standardised.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will develop a platform to enable data sharing across the solar marketplace.
Smart Grid Interoperability Panel will lead an effort to rid data exchanges of inefficiencies, leading to a reduction of non-hardware “soft costs” associated with solar projects. According to the Department, soft or “plug-in” costs of solar in the USA represent as much as 64% of the total cost of a new solar power system.
SunSpec Alliance will establish an open solar data exchange system enabling the flow of data between commercial software products and addressing all aspects of the solar energy system life cycle.
“These new projects build on the work of the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative to grow markets that support solar businesses and increase solar access and deployment, making solar energy affordable and accessible for all Americans,” says the Department.
The project will be considered a success if at least 60% of the U.S. solar industry (deployed and distributed solar assets) adopt the standard.
Further information on the Orange Button Initiative can be viewed here.
