Hey everyone, How ya going? Looking for some suggestions.
I’m based in Malvern East and have a small rooftop solar system with a hybrid setup. Installed it around late December.
My system configuration is - 3.5 kWp Sunova PV panel, FOX ESS EVO hybrid inverter (6 kW), and FOX ESS Home Backup with a 10 kWh lithium battery
For monitoring purposes, I’m currently using FoxCloud. While it works for basic monitoring, I’m not very happy with the overall service — especially since it doesn’t offer any solar generation forecasting.
While searching online for a free solar power forecasting website or services, I came across a few options. One is obviously the very popular Solcast. The next 3 candidates were Forecast.Solar, Energydata.info ( Solar Forecasting Tool ), and Solar-Forecast,com via Solar Power Forecasting - Free PV Forecast for 3 days | API | Dashboard (a newer platform i think).
I’ve personally tested all of them over the past month.
From my experience, Solcast seems quite reliable. Forecast.Solar hasn’t been very accurate for my location. Energydata also works quite well. Solar-Forecast,com looks promising, particularly for their AI/ML-based personalisation. The other 3 don’t offer it. But it’s still not easy to jump to a conclusion after 1 month of using them.
Keen to hear from others - what’s your experience with solar forecasting tools in Australia? Any recommendations or insights for me?