Software Developers Can Build Out Project Data Standards with Orange Button Working Group

See full article on SEPA website here.

The April 2018 launch of the Orange Button data standard marked an important milestone in the solar industry’s path to drive down project costs. But the Orange Button initiative has further to go, beginning with a transition from the current standard to version 2.0, due out in 2019. With the release of Orange Button 1.0, the SunSpec Alliance also convened a working group of software developers and interested parties to begin harmonizing essential solar project documents with the initial classification system for Orange Button data.

Jan Rippingale, co-founder of Blue Banyan Solutions and leader of the first Orange Button working group, says the solar industry inherited a wealth of resources when it selected XBRL as the architectural foundation on which to build the Orange Button data standard. Publicly traded companies have spent years using XBRL to report financial data to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, so therefore, Orange Button developers can tap into an active open source community.  The working group will develop and collect public domain or donated swipe files, code-snippets, starter-based cheat sheets, and other assets so that adopting the Orange Button standard will get easier and easier for all parties. “We’re going to see where we need to extend the codebase, but generally we will be focused on extensions, not rewrites,” Rippingale says.

With future releases of the Orange Button data standard, programmers will introduce the ability to exchange data and metadata from a diverse collection of project documents. Initial efforts will focus on product manufacturer cut sheets and monthly operating reports for energy-producing solar systems. Ultimately every kind of document will be covered by the taxonomy. The Orange Button working group opted to begin with cut sheets for modules, inverters, and other system components because inverter makers faced a July 2018 deadline to show compliance with an updated Rule 21 smart inverter. Incorporating cut sheets into Orange Button helps inverter makers report compliance to the California Public Utilities Commission. Moreover, cut sheets are central to solar project design as technical specifications are central to every system.  If you think of solar project documents in terms of a hub and spokes, the cut sheet would be the hub. Other project documents emanate from and rely on the cut sheet.

Full article via SEPA.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe

Recent Posts

Latest news from our blog

SUNSPEC ALLIANCE ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING

Save the date Date: January 16th, 2024Time: 9am - 5pm PSTLocation: San Diego Convention CenterCost: $695, includes meals & expo passes Registration will be available on the Intersolar website. 

Sunspec at re+ in Las Vegas

Event #1 Unleashing the Power of Customer DERs: Achieving Grid Stability through ConnectivitySession Date: Thursday September 14, 2023Session Time: 9:30 AM - 10:00 AMTheater Location: Industry Trends, Booth #157, Sands Expo, Level 2 Session Description: The potential...

SunSpec Cybersecurity Certification Program Launch

Setting A Cybersecurity Baseline for DER Device Now Please join us on September 28th at 8am PST for this exciting webinar launching the SunSpec DER Cybersecurity Certification program.   Overview: Distributed Energy Resources (DER), composed of solar, energy...

An Interview With Dale Peterson of s4 Events

Global Electrification Meets AI and Machine Learning with Dale Peterson of S4 Events Recap: OverviewPlease join as the leaders of the SunSpec/Sandia DER Cybersecurity Working Group interview Dale Peterson. Dale is a foremost authority on critical asset security,...

SunSpec Alliance is the information standards and certification organization for the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) industry. SunSpec communication standards address operational requirements of solar and energy storage on the smart grid.

Powered By MemberPress WooCommerce Plus Integration