PVMAPS Software: Solar Radiation and PV Performance Analysis Tool

What is PVMAPS Software?

PVMAPS is a comprehensive software suite designed for estimating solar radiation and
photovoltaic performance over geographical regions.

[ Please note that this software is not currently being maintained ]

PVMAPS Software Components

Core Software Architecture

The PVMAPS software tools consist of two essential parts:

Modules (source files) written for the open-source GRASS GIS software which must be compiled
with the GRASS source code installation.

Scripts to run the GRASS modules and other calculations in the GRASS environment.

User Documentation

The User's Manual explains how to install the software and data and how to run the different
tools. The user manual describes the installation procedure and what each tool and script does.

Required Data for PVGIS Calculations

Essential Data Files

The GRASS rasters needed to run the calculations are stored in two files:

• Solar radiation and related data
• DEM and horizon data

Note that the files are about 25GB in total. This data set should contain all what is necessary to
run the PVGIS scripts, except for the high-resolution DEM data.

High-Resolution DEM Data Structure

Data Storage Format

Due to the large amount of data, the high-resolution DEM data are stored as tiles with a size of
2.5° latitude/longitude. At the moment, these data are available only for Europe, but we expect to
make these data available for a larger area very soon.

Individual File Downloads

Since there will be several hundreds of files we have compiled a list of the presently available files.
Each tile can be downloaded individually. For instance, the tile dem_08_076.tar can be
downloaded using the address:

Automated Download Solutions

PHP Download Script

Since it will be cumbersome to download many files individually, we have made a little PHP script
that will download all the files in the tile list, called download_tiles.php

The script is run as:

php download_tiles.php tile_list.txt

Alternative Download Methods

You can also use tools such as wget for automated downloads.

PVMAPS Installation Requirements

System Prerequisites

• Open-source GRASS GIS software
• Sufficient storage space (minimum 25GB for core data)
• PHP environment (for automated downloads)
• Compatible operating system for GRASS GIS

Data Management

The software requires careful data management due to the substantial file sizes and multiple tile
structure for high-resolution terrain data.

PVMAPS provides researchers and professionals with powerful tools for solar energy analysis
across large geographic areas, supporting renewable energy planning and research initiatives.