LUT-PV: An open-access modelling tool for capacity-density-optimised solar photovoltaic power plants by LUT University

LUT-PV is a simulation tool to optimise or simulate utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants. It is designed to do large-scale simulation of globally gridded data in hourly resolution. With respective simulation masks, single nodes can be simulated or optimised as well.

Required input data are (in respective spatial and temporal resolution):

• Global horizontal irradiation (GHI) [W/m^2]
• Direct normal irradiation (DNI) [W/m^2]
• Albedo [-]
• Temperature [K]
• Wind speed* [m/s]
• Roughness length [m]
• Precipitation [mm/month] / monthly values
• Elevation above normally zero  [m] /  no hourly resolution, single values

* Measure height of wind speed and module height have to be manually adjusted in assets/compileResourceWeatherData.m, lines 117, 118. 

Please cite the following article when using the model:

Keiner D., Walter L., Bogdanov D., Peters I.M., Breyer C. Assessing the impact of bifacial solar photovoltaics on future power systems based on capacity-density-optimised power plant yield modelling. Solar Energy 295, 113543, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2025.113543