ARES Soiling Station
ARES is a photovoltaic reference cell based soiling sensor that measures on-site soiling loss.
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Fast installation in under 1 hour anywhere in the array field
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Self-powered and cellular-enabled*
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Cloud-based software calculates soiling loss and projects optimal wash dates
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Calibrated c-Si reference cells closely match the spectral response of site modules
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Guaranteed clean irradiance measurement with integrated spray nozzle and automated Wash Extension.
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Unique patented solution using proprietary technology​
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* Modbus RS-485 and WiFi options available.
Proprietary Measurement Technology
Our PV reference technology provides a real metric to evaluate solar soiling. Unlike other methods such as optical sensors, ARES calculates powerful and actionable data - whereas optical sensors are only able to estimate this data.
PV Reference Cell | Optical Sensor |
|---|---|
Large area PV reference cell response is highly correlated with array response | Optical sensor response is poorly correlated to array response |
No calibration needed - accounts for all soiling materials natively | Needs constant re-calibration to account for different soiling material types |
Measurement based on full PV spectral sensitivity | Measurement based on single or narrow band visible spectrum |
Uses automatically cleaned solar reference cell | Does not use a reference cell |
Calculates real-time soiling loss data and does not require scalars | Infers soiling loss data and requires unknown scalars |
"After deploying the soiling monitoring hardware, we were able to see that we weren’t washing often enough. Optimizing our cleaning schedules allowed us to maximize overall site performance and reduce costs.”
Cannon Michaels, President, Bowles Farming Company
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Testimonials
Will Carleton
General Manager Solar O&M
Clearway Energy Group
"The equipment has given us monitoring capability to compare soiling levels to generation and helped us determine at what soiling percentage do we engage the contractor so that we don’t have greater generation loss due to contractor scheduling. We can watch the soiling rate and determine ahead of time to schedule the contractor."
Jon Previtali
Senior Principal Engineer
VDE Americas
“Fracsun will be strong, straight arrow in your quiver for both energy production modeling and operations. Soiling is one of the biggest sources of energy forecast uncertainty and ongoing underperformance, especially in agricultural areas. I recommend their combined hardware and software solution for anyone concerned about soiling, one of the most perplexing and often overlooked sources of solar underperformance in solar.”
Evan Riley
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
White Pine Renewables
“We have standardized on installing Fracsun on all of our systems in California. After trying multiple soiling sensors, we now use Fracsun on all of our projects. The technology is highly automated, requires little to no site maintenance and has a great web portal that I check every day to evaluate the costs and benefits of washing. If you are installing a solar project in a dusty region, its irresponsible to build the project without a Fracsun soiling sensor.”
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Balamurali Rammohan
Senior Manager
Arevon Energy
“Fracsun’s PV soiling stations are easy to install, low-maintenance, and provide reliable data via a cloud portal. We have deployed the Fracsun stations throughout our 4 GW PV portfolio and their intuitive monitoring portal helps us standardize how we track portfolio wide soiling and optimize our washing schedules. I highly recommend Fracsun for anyone seeking a simple and effective soiling monitoring solution for your PV projects.”