Inverter Blocks
To simplify the construction of some larger PV plants the layout designers design a building block (one central inverter and associated racks or trackers) and replicate this building block many times over the area of the site to build the PV plant.
In SolarFarmer we call this building block an inverter block (as it contains just one inverter).
To design and use an inverter block in SolarFarmer:
First go to the Lay out plant → Design layout task and create a layout region containing racks or trackers, add a central inverter and assign strings on the racks or trackers to the central inverter.
Come back to the Define components → Inverter blocks task.
Add a new inverter block and select the layout region from a list of available layout regions to use as its template.
Go back to the Lay out plant → Design layout task, add a new layout region and add instances of the inverter block (either individually or using auto-fill).
Adding Inverter Blocks
Click on the 'Add new' button to add a new inverter block. A panel appears (shown below) listing all the suitable layout regions from all the site layouts in the workbook that can be used as an inverter block template.
Click on the different rows in the table to select that layout region. A summary of its statistics and a visualisation of the contents is shown to help you pick the right one.
Not all layout regions can be used as inverter block templates. Only those that meet the following criteria:
It cannot be empty (it must contain some racks or trackers)
All the assigned strings must be connected to one central inverter
The central inverter must not have strings in any other layout region.
For racks -- the azimuth of the layout region must be 0 or 180 (racks must be horizontal)
For trackers -- the system rotation must be 0 (trackers must be vertical).
It will construct a rectangular shape from the layout region (so they tessellate correctly) -- so make your template layout regions rectangular.
Once you have selected the layout region you want, click the 'Use selected layout region' button to finish creating the inverter block. It now shows a visualisation of the inverter block and its statistics:
The inverter block is now available in the Lay out plant → Design layout task to be added to other layout regions.