Tutorial B - pvfree

Another option to get CEC module parameters is to use pvfree.

Let's Explore: Click here to see the pvfree Website

You can search the table of the CEC modules. Once you find the desired module, you can get a JSON dictionary of the CEC module parameters from the API. For example, Canadian Solar Inc. CS5P-220M can be downloaded from the API here: https://pvfree.azurewebsites.net/api/v1/cecmodule/1733/?format=json. You can copy and paste or use python to call the API.

The API also has search filters you can use. For example: https://pvfree.azurewebsites.net/api/v1/cecmodule/?format=json&Name__istartswith=canadian&STC__gt=219&STC__lt=221 searches for all modules starting with “canadian” and with nameplate between 219-W and 221-W which returns a list of 6 modules in a JSON dictionary. Limiting the short circuit currentl (Isc) to less than 6-A reduces this list to 2 modules.

# if running on google colab, uncomment the next line and execute this cell to install the dependencies and prevent "ModuleNotFoundError" in later cells:
# !pip install -r https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PVSC-Python-Tutorials/PVPMC_2022/main/requirements.txt

import urllib, json
params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
    'Name__istartswith': 'canadian',
    'STC__gt': 219, 'STC__lt': 221,
    'I_sc_ref__lt': 6})
with urllib.request.urlopen(f'https://pvfree.azurewebsites.net/api/v1/cecmodule/?{params}') as fp:
    cs_220_mods = json.load(fp)
print(f"Total count of Canadian Solar 220-W with Isc < 6A: {cs_220_mods['meta']['total_count']}")
cs_220_mods['objects']

Total count of Canadian Solar 220-W with Isc < 6A: 2

[{'A_c': 1.7,
  'Adjust': 8.619516,
  'BIPV': False,
  'Bifacial': False,
  'Date': '2018-11-04',
  'I_L_ref': 5.11426,
  'I_mp_ref': 4.69,
  'I_o_ref': 8.102508e-10,
  'I_sc_ref': 5.1,
  'Length': 1.602,
  'N_s': 96,
  'Name': 'Canadian Solar Inc. CS5P-220M',
  'PTC': 200.1,
  'R_s': 1.066023,
  'R_sh_ref': 381.254425,
  'STC': 219.961,
  'T_NOCT': 42.4,
  'Technology': 'Mono-c-Si',
  'V_mp_ref': 46.9,
  'V_oc_ref': 59.4,
  'Version': 'SAM 2018.10.29',
  'Width': 1.061,
  'a_ref': 2.635926,
  'alpha_sc': 0.004539,
  'beta_oc': -0.222156,
  'created_on': '2019-02-12',
  'gamma_r': -0.476,
  'id': 1733,
  'modified_on': '2019-02-12',
  'resource_uri': '/api/v1/cecmodule/1733/'},
 {'A_c': 1.639,
  'Adjust': 2.227195,
  'BIPV': False,
  'Bifacial': False,
  'Date': '2018-11-04',
  'I_L_ref': 5.05607,
  'I_mp_ref': 4.73,
  'I_o_ref': 9.957448e-11,
  'I_sc_ref': 5.05,
  'Length': 1.579,
  'N_s': 96,
  'Name': 'Canadian Solar Inc. CS5P-220P',
  'PTC': 193.1,
  'R_s': 1.00467,
  'R_sh_ref': 835.904785,
  'STC': 220.418,
  'T_NOCT': 51.4,
  'Technology': 'Multi-c-Si',
  'V_mp_ref': 46.6,
  'V_oc_ref': 58.3,
  'Version': 'SAM 2018.10.29',
  'Width': 1.038,
  'a_ref': 2.366377,
  'alpha_sc': 0.0025,
  'beta_oc': -0.196588,
  'created_on': '2019-02-12',
  'gamma_r': -0.43,
  'id': 1734,
  'modified_on': '2019-02-12',
  'resource_uri': '/api/v1/cecmodule/1734/'}]

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