SolaireDirect manages fleet of solar panels with AirVantage

Solairedirect™ is the leading photovoltaic electricity operator in France. Dedicated to the solar production of electricity, the company designs, installs and operates photovoltaic infrastructures of all sizes throughout their lifecycle. With 150 employees, Solairedirect turns over 40 million Euros and has an IT budget of 1.2 million Euros.

“Solairedirect has chosen Sierra Wireless Solutions and Services for their capacity to develop vertical applications quickly based on the M2M Operating Portal platform. Apart from the technology, we appreciate Sierra Wireless’ clear understanding of our requirements and our processes in supplying solutions, as well as the team’s responsiveness and attentiveness,” explained Patrick Braut, engineering director at Solairedirect.

Challenges

Solairedirect was interested in developing a solution to collect real-time equipment and production information for both itself and its customers. The company wanted to remotely monitor its production facilities to detect incidents and provide first level analysis. Solairedirect also wanted to share collected data with its customers so they could analyze system and product performance, as well as consumption levels.

Solution

Solairedirect selected the Sierra Wireless AirVantage™ Services Platform to provide remote monitoring of its facilities and information access for its customers. The AirVantage Services Platform enables the embedded part of the solution, data configuration and logging from EDF meters, events acquisition from inverters and meters, as well as “Over The Air” (OTAP) firmware and inverter updates. The server part of the AirVantage Services Platform provides the management of inverter and gateway events in real-time, import and export of customer data from Solairedirect’s information system, as well as presentation of analytical data in customized reports and visual representations. This data is displayed both for administrators and end-users through web interfaces.

Solairedirect’s remote monitoring and data access solution – with 4000 installations – using the AirVantage Services Platform provides the following benefits:

• Better responsiveness to maintenance and breakdown services
• Better visibility of solar panel production and performance
• Reliable evaluation of installed products quality
• End user confidence by monitoring electricity production and revenue in real-time
• System autonomy and durability
• Competitive differentiation with comprehensive solution