PVFARM has commercially launched RE PILOT, an early-stage optimization tool designed to evaluate utility-scale solar and colocated battery energy storage system configurations. The platform combines site layout, battery sizing, facility placement, and financial modeling into a unified workflow to streamline decision-making before projects enter detailed engineering.
Utility-scale development teams typically evaluate system parameters like inverter loading ratios, ground coverage ratios, DC-to-AC ratios, and storage capacity using separate software packages and manual spreadsheets. RE PILOT automates parameter sweeps across varying racking types, module selections, inverters, and grid export limits. The algorithm evaluates these layout variables against levelized cost of energy, capital expenditure targets, and point-of-interconnection capacity limits to identify optimal site configurations.
The software connects directly with PVFARM’s broader suite of utility-scale tools, including RE STACK for specialized battery container layouts, road planning, and medium-voltage collection topology. Once developers and EPCs isolate high-performing concepts in RE PILOT, the design files can be passed forward into PVFARM for detailed multidisciplinary structural, civil, and electrical engineering.
Early adoption across major developers and contractors reflects a broader push to eliminate bottlenecks during early-stage estimating and site selection. For instance, EDF Power Solutions North America integrated PVFARM into its workflow to replace a four-week waiting period for third-party engineering consults with in-house preliminary layouts, allowing the firm to evaluate complex site options and respond to developer requests faster.
Similarly, vertically integrated developer and EPC NARENCO turned to the platform when its engineering and estimating teams faced capacity constraints during periods of rapid growth. Jesse Johnson, estimating manager at NARENCO, noted that traditional pre-construction workflows were taking up to five weeks to deliver pricing iterations. By replacing manual terrain analysis, civil work, and balance-of-systems calculations with automated tools, NARENCO cut overall project pre-construction timelines by about 50%, shortened initial pricing turnarounds to a few days, and reported a 5x return on investment within six months without adding headcount.
PVFARM developed the commercial release of RE PILOT following feedback from over 150 hours of industry conversations and beta testing across more than 80 organizations, including engineering, procurement, and construction firms like McCarthy Building Companies. The software addresses growing development friction around grid interconnection limits and complex power purchase agreement structures by integrating reverse power calculations and point-of-interconnection constraint modeling directly into preliminary array sweeps.
As developers increasingly pivot toward hybrid solar-plus-storage assets to mitigate price cannibalization and grid curtailment, early optimization tools seek to reduce design iteration cycles prior to formal procurement and interconnection filings.
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