New computational software, said to have the potential to rapidly grow the utility-scale solar sector on the African continent, has entered the solar energy market, to which 2.5 GW of new solar capacity was added in 2024.

Developed by 7SecondSolar, AUTOPV is designed to empower energy engineers to optimise and accelerate solar farm development through design automation. The software enables energy engineers to complete a design in a much shorter time frame than was previously possible.

“Our software automates engineering-quality design outputs, generating precise bills of quantity, detailed engineering reports, AutoCAD drawings, and multiple design variations for the same site,” says 7SecondSolar CEO Paul Nel. “This helps energy engineers and developers compare cost and energy yield scenarios with ease.”

Designing a utility-scale solar farm is known to be a complex process, where even small adjustments can lead to large cost savings and efficiency gains. Nel cites the example of a recent 214 MW solar project where AUTOPV was used to generate eight different design variations in just one morning.

“By making small tweaks, such as adjusting the width of corridors or repositioning string inverters, we were able to identify two highly feasible designs. One could reduce cable costs by $1-million, while another could improve energy efficiency enough to generate an additional $50 000 in annual revenue,” adds Nel. “With AUTOPV, we did this in hours, with fully detailed, build-ready drawings showing exact cable routes and inverter placements.”

Another example is the Golomoti solar project in Malawi, a 28.5 MWp solar PV and battery storage installation, where the software was used to tackle intricate design requirements, including navigating around protected Baobab trees on site. By generating multiple layout configurations and equipment selections, the engineering team identified various feasible design options in a short space of time.

“To date, our software has been used to deliver 669 MW of design-stage projects, saving a total of more than 15 000 traditional engineering hours. Additionally, we have delivered 1.2 GW of early-stage development projects, saving over 4 000 engineering hours. This has allowed engineering teams to focus on refining and optimising solar PV designs,” asserts Nel.