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Software case study · Energy & Solar

SunPlot 3D — Solar PV Design & Simulation Software

Browser-based 3D solar design with module-level shading, measured-climate yield forecasts and one-click client proposals.

In brief: A browser-based solar PV design tool for laying out modules, checking shading and yield, and producing client proposals without a site visit or desktop software.

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Status
Delivered — custom version in use; open-source core live
Climate history
10 years (NASA POWER)
Shading performance
~1 s for 3,250 modules
Proposal output
5-page PDF, in the browser
Financial horizon
25 years
Site types
Homes, flat roofs, carports, shelters, airports, land
3D studio — a 6.9 kWp array with yearly energy from measured climate and a loss breakdown.

Overview

About the project

SunPlot 3D is a browser-based solar PV design tool. Installers lay out modules on a 3D model of the site, check shading and yield against measured climate data, and generate a client-ready proposal — without a site visit or desktop software.

A custom version was delivered for a US solar company to support design and sales. It handles houses, flat roofs, carports, bus shelters, airports and open land, from a 3.5 kWp home in Jaipur to a 1.8 MWp airport installation.

Presented as portfolio work from our founder-led engineering team. Client names, commercial terms and business performance figures are not published.

The challenge

  • Installers need an accurate production estimate before visiting a site; estimates based on 'typical weather' erode customer trust.
  • An incorrect figure in a proposal creates commercial problems later in the sale.
  • Manual layouts miss setbacks and can cause rows to shade one another.
  • Hand-built proposals were slow to produce and inconsistent from one customer to the next.

Features

What the platform does.

  • Interactive 3D studio

    A live 3D model of the system with yearly energy from measured climate and a full loss breakdown.

  • Panel placement and adjustment

    Add or remove a module, row, column or whole array, or paint across slots — with undo, redo, fill all, clear and keyboard shortcuts.

  • Code-aware auto layout

    Applies ridge and edge setbacks and keep-outs around chimneys, vents and HVAC, and skips roof planes too small for four modules.

  • Winter-solstice row spacing

    Row pitch is calculated from the winter-solstice noon sun so rows do not shade each other.

  • Module-level shading

    Ray-cast shading from trees, roofs and other rows for every module, sampled every half hour on representative days, shown as a heat map.

  • Climate-based forecasting

    Ten years of NASA POWER irradiation, temperature and rainfall data for the exact location, with P50 and P90 yield estimates.

  • Weather and snow modelling

    Soiling, snow cover and heat losses modelled and presented as a loss waterfall; snow is visualised in 3D.

  • Site survey workflow

    Address search, building outline selection on satellite imagery, obstacle marking and system sizing from the electricity bill, with subsidy calculation for Indian rooftops.

  • Automated proposal PDF

    A one-click, five-page proposal generated in the browser: 3D view, plan, arrays, monthly energy, losses, climate and 25-year financials.

System architecture

How it's put together.

  1. 01Interface

    React 19 single-page application with three.js and React Three Fiber for the 3D scene

  2. 02Computation

    Shading ray-casting in a Web Worker so the 3D view stays responsive

  3. 03Climate data

    NASA POWER — ten years of location-specific irradiation, temperature and precipitation

  4. 04Geospatial

    OpenStreetMap and Photon for search; Overture Maps for building outlines

  5. 05Output

    Client-side PDF proposal generation

  6. 06Hosting

    Cloudflare Workers; built with Vite

Technical challenges

Problems worth solving properly.

Accurate estimates without a site visit
Ten years of NASA POWER data for the exact coordinates, P50 and P90 yields to communicate uncertainty, and explicit soiling, snow and heat loss modelling.
Shading without freezing the browser
Shading runs in a Web Worker, sampled half-hourly on representative days — roughly one second for 3,250 modules.
Compliant layouts by default
Setbacks, keep-outs, winter-solstice row pitch and minimum roof-plane size are encoded in the auto-layout, so every design starts compliant.
Proposals customers can sign
A consistent five-page PDF is generated in one click, directly from the design.

Technology

Stack

  • React 19
  • three.js
  • React Three Fiber
  • Web Workers
  • Vite
  • NASA POWER
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Photon
  • Overture Maps
  • Client-side PDF
  • Cloudflare Workers

Outcomes

Where it stands.

  • The custom version is in use for design and sales proposals.
  • The open-source core is publicly available as a working demonstration.
  • Every design produces a consistent, data-backed proposal.
  • Quantified commercial results such as time saved or win rates are not published.

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