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Energy report
Production figures of our projects and solar farms in 2022.
Walking on sunshine…
While 2021 was a year to forget in terms of Belgian sunshine, 2022 surpassed all expectations. The Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) reported that the three summer months of 2022 were all sunnier than average. Not only that, but this summer was by far the sunniest summer ever, with more than 779 hours of sunshine, compared to the national average of 594 hours. 2022 therefore crushed the previous record from 2003 of 739 hours. Even deep into October, the sun continued to shine brightly.
Our photovoltaic (PV) systems were therefore running at full capacity, allowing us to provide our customers with maximum local, green renewable energy. EnergyVision, our customers, the planet... everyone was happy!
hours of sunshine in 2022
Energy crisis boosted the PV sector…
Even though the sun kept shining a great deal over the last year, there was no getting away from the looming energy crisis, with high energy tariffs leading us all to look for better alternatives.
The cheapest form of energy is still the energy you don't consume at all. The crisis made society as a whole think about energy consumption, and households, businesses and governments were all searching for solutions to use energy more rationally. The second-cheapest form of energy is that which is generated locally – and that's where our solar panels come in. Demand rose exponentially, giving the PV sector a massive boost. Across the globe, demand for components and inverters peaked. We also completed a record number of installations, generating more green energy than ever before.
Let us take you through the figures and results for 2022.
Our data
Kilowatt hours, kilowatt hours, kilowatt hours... that's what it's all about! Our monitoring and service teams on standby every day, 24/7 to closely monitor the performance of the PV installations. This is the only way to ensure we get the best out of them.
And that is good for everyone concerned. Society wins, as every green kWh of solar power brings us one step closer to a cleaner and healthier society. EnergyVision wins, because the more green electricity we generate, the more revenue and resources that come from it, and the more we can invest in our customers and our own future. And finally, our customers – bearing the brunt of this severe energy crisis – win, as every green kWh produced is a penny saved on this ever more expensive energy market.
Number of solar farms
A solar farm in our portfolio has an average of 85 solar panels. But there are big differences between the different countries and solar farms. Our smallest project (B2C, in Belgium, under the Brusol concept) counts only 6 panels. Our largest project in China, on the other hand, comprises some 20,000 solar panels.
Number of projects
Capacity of our solar farms
Our projects are spread across three different countries. All together they have a considerable capacity, all of which we have built and monitored ourselves, whether or not for our own account. This capacity is growing year on year, and at an ever increasing pace.
Cumulative capacity of our projects (expressed in MWp):
Availability of our solar farms
The availability of our projects throughout the year is one our key measured parameters. We guarantee a minimum operational availability of at least 98.5% for both our own projects, as well as the solar farms we manage for Sibelga or ASTER, for example. Operational and available means an irradiance of at least 50 W/m² solar panel area.
The fact that the availability of our solar farms is considerably higher than the average in the sector leads to higher energy production (expressed in kWh/kWp) and therefore higher profitability.
EnergyVision solar farms (2020-2022)
2020
2021
2022
Benchmark in the sector (2020-2022)
2020
2021
2022
Energy production of our solar farms
We measure the energy production of our entire portfolio (split into B2B and B2C, and given the large differences in intensity of sunlight, also split into the countries in which we are active).
However we also measure the energy production for each individual site, expressed in kWh/year.
Then we look at the relative performance of each site, expressed in kWh/kWp/year, i.e. the number of kWh each solar panel installed generates per year at a given location.
The results are highly dependent on
- location
- orientation and tilt angle (a south-facing installation will yield more than one facing east, while a solar panel at a tilt angle of 31° will yield more than a panel lying flat)
- correct engineering and installation and
- proper follow-up and maintenance with timely interventions.
In 2022, irradiance was more than 10% higher than in the previous year, which in turn had a positive effect on the energy production of our portfolio.
The results at global level in absolute figures (expressed in MWh/year):
Both residential (B2C) and industrial (B2B) installations show a marked increase compared to 2021. This is mainly due to the additional hours of sunshine in the spring and summer of 2022.
The results in relative figures (expressed in kWh/kWp/year):
Interventions on our solar farms
By intervention we mean: any alarm that requires some kind of interaction, whether from a remote location or an intervention by a technician on site. We refer to this as corrective interventions.
The alarms can be generated by our monitoring platform, or can come via messages from customers (all customers receive special emergency numbers and e-mail addresses from us, such as urgent@brusol.be, urgent@energyhome.be or urgent.aster@energyvision.be, which can be reached permanently, all year round, even during holiday periods or weekends, for urgent problems).
Despite the substantial growth of our portfolio, and thus the number of projects we monitor, there is only a limited increase in the number of interventions in 2022.
We identify two types of alarms that occur and may require interventions: alarms that may have a real impact on production (e.g. faulty inverter, outage, etc.), versus alarms that merely indicate a communication problem (our platform is temporarily disconnected from the installation, but the installation itself continues to produce energy).
Most alarms receive an immediate response: often within the hour, and anyway almost always within 24 hours. A problem is therefore not solved immediately, but the alarm does get our immediate attention and we draw up an action plan to be fully operational again after 72 hours at the latest.
This does not include preventive interventions (visual inspection, electrical and mechanical maintenance). These are carried out annually on our industrial installations to guarantee their future smooth operation.
Finally, the solar panels are cleaned periodically. This is done using osmosis water. The cleaner a solar panel is, the better the irradiation and therefore the higher the production. How often a solar panel needs to be cleaned to have optimal performance depends very much on both the region and the slope of the installation. Solar panels on a sloping roof in Belgium hardly need cleaning. It rains often enough in Belgium, and this rain washes away most of the dirt. A PV installation on a flat roof in China, however, is a completely different matter. Due to air pollution, pollution and smog, there is a fine layer of dust on the solar panels not even a week after each cleaning.
Editing: Justin Noyez
With the collaboration of: Michèle Adams, Thomas Dauwe, Koen Decourt, Sander Wille, Klaas Michielssens, Maqsud Bilal, Laurens De Greef, Laurien Godfroid
Design and styling: Ilse Maes
Publisher responsible: Maarten Michielssens
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