IST PVSolar Simulator V9.0.10: Built for Africa's Solar Engineers

IST PVSolar Simulator V9.0.10 takes an African solar project from site data to a bank-ready report in one platform, using the utilities, regulators, currencies and grid conditions that African projects actually face.

Why Africa needs its own solar platform

Africa has some of the world's best solar resource and some of its hardest project conditions. A rooftop in Lagos, a C&I plant in Nairobi and a municipal SSEG system in Cape Town each face a different regulator, a different export rule and a different currency.

Grid outages and load-shedding make storage part of the core design, not an add-on. Harmattan haze, dry-season dust and rainy-season storms change soiling and yield assumptions. Lenders want P90 yields, a DSCR and a tax model that follows local capital-allowance rules.

Most PV tools assume a stable European or US grid. Engineers then patch the gaps in spreadsheets. IST PVSolar Simulator builds the local rules in, so the selected country drives the standards on drawings, the utility in approvals, the tariff in local currency and the tax treatment in the financial model.

Native to African utility and regulatory frameworks

The simulator covers all 54 African countries. South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Rwanda have full local profiles. The other 49 use an Africa regional profile with their own currency, VAT rate and grid CO₂ factor, so a project in Ghana, Senegal or Zambia starts in cedi, CFA franc or kwacha, not dollars.

The full profiles also carry local product marks and safety codes onto drawings and reports. Examples are SONCAP and NEMSA NESIS in Nigeria, KEBS and KS IEC 60364 in Kenya, and RSB standards in Rwanda.

All values are indicative starting points and stay editable. The administrator can update a country centrally when a regulation changes. Each user can also save their own values for their market in the Database tab, and the simulator then uses them in place of the built-in ones.

From site data to a bankable energy yield

The simulation engine runs at monthly, hourly (8,760 steps) or 15-minute sub-hourly (35,040 steps) resolution. The hourly and sub-hourly runs are the ones meant for bankable reports.

Solar resource. Import PVGIS TMY built to ISO 15927-4, both of which cover the African continent. You can also enter the 12-month table by hand. Loading a measured hourly TMY automatically tightens the resource uncertainty from ±5% to ±2.5%.

Physics chain. Each hourly step follows the same sequence:

1. Perez (1990) anisotropic transposition converts horizontal irradiance to plane-of-array irradiance.
2. Martin–Ruiz incidence-angle losses and an air-mass spectral correction give the effective irradiance.
3. The Faiman model sets cell temperature, which matters in Sahel and East African heat. A single-diode (De Soto 5-parameter) model then gives module power.
4. DC losses and degradation are applied, then the inverter efficiency curve and true AC clipping.

Local climate built in. Each market profile carries its own seasonal soiling and climate notes into the reports, so the cleaning plan and the soiling loss you choose match the site. Nigeria's covers harmattan dust (November–March) and rainy-season algae. Kenya's covers dry-season dust, long and short rains and high-altitude UV. South Africa's covers hail and winter dust.

Shading in 3D. Upload a drone orthomosaic (JPG, PNG or GeoTIFF, with optional KML, GeoJSON or LAS point-cloud files). Trace roofs and obstructions, and lay out real panels, with no dependency on satellite map imagery. The tool returns an hourly shading profile instead of a single flat percentage.

Bifacial and trackers. An unlimited-sheds view-factor model calculates rear-side irradiance from ground albedo, mounting height and pitch. This is useful on bright desert and sandy ground. Single-axis trackers with backtracking are supported for utility-scale plants.

No .PAN or .OND files needed. Build any module or inverter model straight from the manufacturer's PDF datasheet. Many suppliers serving African markets do not publish proprietary simulation files.

Electrical design and storage for outage-prone grids

Once the simulation runs, the electrical package is built from the same design data. There is nothing to retype, and the drawings always match the yield model.

Battery storage, designed hour by hour. Where load-shedding and outages are routine, the storage study is often the deciding part of the design:

• Dispatch: an hourly simulation of PV, load and battery over the full year, using an imported 8,760-hour load profile or a day/night appliance tally
• Chemistry: LFP, NMC, lead-acid flat or tubular, and VRLA, each filling typical efficiency, minimum state-of-charge, cycle-life and cost defaults
• Backup runtime: how long a critical load stays powered during a grid outage, plus battery sizing from the days of autonomy you need
• Bill savings: peak shaving with a suggested import cap, time-of-day and demand charges, and DC coupling that stores energy the inverter would otherwise clip

Bankability that DFIs and local lenders recognise

The financial model runs on the conservative P90 energy, not the P50 headline. Every ratio is tested against covenant thresholds the lender sets.

The path from yield to investment decision:

1. Uncertainty. Four sources are combined by root-sum-square: inter-annual variability (±5%), resource data (±5%, or ±2.5% with a measured TMY), model (±1.5%) and components (±2%). The result is P50, P75, P90 and P95 yields.
2. Project-level model. LCOE, NPV, IRR, ROI, profitability index, simple and discounted payback, and break-even tariff, with a year-by-year cash flow in local currency.
3. Equity-level model. Project IRR, equity IRR, minimum DSCR over the loan tenure, and a CAPEX/Wp check against country-specific benchmark bands.
4. Monte Carlo risk. 20,000 trials by default across the 8,760-hour AC series, degradation, and tariff and OPEX escalation. It reports P10, P50 and P90 ranges for NPV, equity IRR, LCOE and DSCR.
5. Risk score and report. A 0–100 composite from Investment Grade to Speculative, with a hard override if NPV or DSCR fails. A lender-facing Bankability Assessment Report records the preparer, the reviewer and the grade of the resource data. Country risk and currency/FX mismatch are covered in the report too.

Export rules follow system size automatically. In Nigeria, a 40 kWp system gets no export credit, while a 200 kWp system is credited at 0.55 × tariff under the 2026 Net Billing Regulations. In Kenya, net metering applies up to 10 kW, and larger systems switch to self-consumption.

Tax presets in one click. Apply the country preset and the model sets the corporate tax rate and depreciation schedule. For example, South Africa's Section 12B writes off 100% in year 1 for PV up to 1 MW, and Zimbabwe's special initial allowance runs 50/25/25. You can also choose WDV, straight line or any custom schedule.

High-inflation markets handled. Tariff escalation, OPEX escalation and the discount rate are set per market. Nigeria's defaults are 10% tariff escalation and an 18% discount rate. South Africa's are 8% escalation and a 12% discount rate.

Who it is for, and how to start

The platform serves everyone who touches an African solar project between concept and financial close:

• C&I and rooftop EPC contractors replacing diesel generators with solar-plus-storage, who need a utility-ready design, battery sizing and a client proposal in one place
• Mini-grid and utility-scale developers sizing ground-mount and tracker plants with 3D terrain, row pitch and true inverter clipping
• Technical advisers and due-diligence engineers who need P90 yields, transparent loss chains and a reproducible report
• Development finance institutions, banks and investors reviewing DSCR, equity IRR, country risk and the risk score against their own covenants
• Universities and researchers, through the Research tab: IEC 61724-1 accounting, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty, and SCADA benchmarking against measured plant data

Start on the Free Plan. Every new member is activated on the Free Plan automatically at sign-up. It covers project setup, orientation, module and inverter selection, sub-array design and the full simulation engine. Reports carry a DEMO VERSION watermark.

Upgrade when the project needs it. Paid plans unlock 3D Shadow Analysis, Economic Evaluation and Bankability, the component databases, and EPC Proposals and BOQ. The Research tab comes with the higher tiers. If a paid plan lapses, the account returns to the Free Plan automatically.

One design, one source of truth

IST PVSolar Simulator V9.0.10 replaces the chain of separate tools and spreadsheets behind an African solar project. One design drives a P90 yield, a code-compliant electrical package, an outage-ready storage design and a lender-ready bankability report.

Because each market profile carries its real rules, the numbers start close to correct. That covers SSEG registration in South Africa, NERC Net Billing in Nigeria, Kenya's 10 kW net-metering limit and Section 12B write-offs. Engineers spend their time on the design, not on re-keying data.

Create a free account at istpvsolarsimulator.com and run your first 8,760-hour simulation today.

Tariffs, tax rates, exchange rates and policy rules in the simulator are indicative starting points. Confirm the current values with your utility, regulator and a tax adviser before issuing a bankable report.