The Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre (DKASC) is a solar technology demonstration facility located in Alice Springs, Central Australia, with over 30 installed Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Data from the DKASC PV systems, as well as site meteorological data, is publicly available over the internet. PV modelling software is widely used in the design of PV systems to determine expected energy yield. To date, few independent studies have been conducted to assess the accuracy of commonly used PV modelling software against real world performance data. Using the available data collected by the DKASC, six existing PV systems were modelled using four different modelling tools and the model outputs were assessed against actual system performance. The modelling tools assessed were PVsyst, HOMER, RETScreen and SMA Sunny Design. In the context of the DKASC, and accounting for the uncertainties present in the models and testing, the modelling tools were found to be relatively accurate.
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Lee et al. (2011) studied this question.