OCC has developed a tool (Soltool) for the Energy Technology Support Unit (now Future Energy Solutions. It analyses the resource availability of, and costs associated with, particular solar technologies at regional level.

The tool generates resource-cost curves for particular solar technologies within scenarios defined by the user. Analysis of resource and costs is an essential step in quantifying the potential for solar power.

To define a scenario, the user selects parameters such as region, year and discount rate, the solar technology of interest and the type of installation. The results provide a broad view of the potential energy available from the chosen technology and the cost of that energy.

The analysis can also be made more specific. By specifying further parameters, the user can examine a narrower cross-section of the region, such as one industrial sector, buildings of a particular construction type or domestic households of a certain size.

Results can be retrieved at a later date; similarly, the scenarios themselves may be retrieved, modified and run at any time, allowing changing conditions to be accounted for.

Users of Soltool will be able to furnish councils and regional utility companies with information which will be an invaluable aid to the latter's planning. The information will also feed into the DTI’s solar energy programme.

The Soltool project is an example of enabling industry to utilise, through a software tool, the latest academic and industrial research into alternative energy technologies.

Future Energy Solutions