Implement monthly snow loss model

[cwhanse]

Interesting model for predicting monthly energy loss due to snow, from monthly quantities (snow total, plane-of-array insolation).

Photovoltaics and snow: An update from two winters of measurements in the SIERRA
June 2011Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
DOI: 10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186627

Would be a nice addition to pvlib.snow

[abhisheksparikh]

I am willing to take this on as an opportunity to make my first contribution to pvlib. I am intending to start on 06/16.

[cwhanse]

@abhisheksparikh Thanks!

[mikofski]

just to reference some older issues:

• Townsend: Implement another snow loss model like Bill Marion as an alt to pvwatts #577 (comment)
• SunPower: Implement another snow loss model like Bill Marion as an alt to pvwatts #577 (comment)

If you just hover over the links, you can see the comment text

[mikofski]

Some references:

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DNV

[1] T. Townsend and L. Powers, “Photovoltaics and snow: An update from two winters of measurements in the SIERRA,” Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovolt. Spec. Conf., pp. 003231–003236, 2011.
BEW IEEE 20110621final.pdf

[1] L. Powers, J. Newmiller, and T. Townsend, “Measuring and modeling the effect of snow on photovoltaic system performance,” Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovolt. Spec. Conf., pp. 973–978, 2010.
IEEE2010BEWsnow.pdf

[1] N. Heidari, J. Gwamuri, T. Townsend, and J. M. Pearce, “Impact of Snow and Ground Interference on Photovoltaic Electric System Performance,” IEEE J. Photovoltaics, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 1680–1685, 2015.
Impact_of_Snow_and_Ground_Interference_o.pdf

[1] R. W. Andrews, A. Pollard, and J. M. Pearce, “The effects of snowfall on solar photovoltaic performance,” Sol. Energy, vol. 92, pp. 84–97, 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2013.02.014
Andrews, Pollard, Pearce - 2013 - The effects of snowfall on solar photovoltaic performance.pdf

Rob Andrews, et al. "Effects of Snowfall on PV Performance" at PVPMC 2013 in Santa Clara
38-Andrews-Characterizing-Snow-Losses.pdf0__.pdf

Tim Townsend "BRRR... Who put that snow on my $PV system?" at SPI
SPI Poster - Townsend.pdf

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SunPower

Defne Gun, Mike Anderson "Dynamic Snow Loss Model and Validation" at PVPMC 2018 in Albuquerque

[kurt-rhee]

@abhisheksparikh how is it going? If you need some assistance, my group at EDF could possibly lend a hand implementing the model.

[abhisheksparikh]

@kurt-rhee Thanks for the offer! :) I am almost ready to open a pull request.

[kurt-rhee]

@abhisheksparikh Awesome! Very grateful for the contribution, you've definitely saved us time.

[ColmBhandal]

@abhisheksparikh Are you still working on your PR? If you don't have the time I can attempt to continue work on it.