Eyeballed placement
Module layouts on complex façades are often sketched by hand against elevations. What gets quoted is what fits on paper — not what fits the zone after setbacks, openings and existing arrays.
Solutions · Façade & BIPV Consultants
Complex geometry deserves better than a rule-of-thumb yield
Façade-mounted PV lives or dies on geometry: orientation, self-shading, neighbouring obstruction, the actual buildable zone. SolaMaxa puts that geometry at the centre of the analysis — so your numbers hold up when someone checks them.
Workflow emphasisAnalyseDesignAssure
The problem
What this work actually looks like today
Shading treated as a fudge factor
Neighbouring buildings, fins and self-shading decide whether a façade band performs — but in many workflows they enter the calculation as a single discount nobody can inspect.
Fidelity you can't state
When a client or a rival challenges the yield, the answer needs a stated method and context. A spreadsheet cell is not a defence.
Rooftop tools, façade problems
Most PV engineering tools assume tilted, unobstructed roof planes. Vertical, partially-shaded, mixed glazing/opaque surfaces need a different model — and honesty about what the inputs support.
What changes
With SolaMaxa in the workflow
Geometry-based shading, not discount factors
Time-step shading computed from the canonical geometry — direct-beam obstruction, horizon and context — applied per surface, zone or array, with the provider recorded on every result.
Placement that fits the zone
Deterministic placement scenarios respect product dimensions, zone geometry, setbacks and existing arrays — and every proposed array carries its reasoning.
Two tiers, clearly stated
Screen a façade quickly, then escalate specific zones to detailed engineering with an explicit loss waterfall and modelled uncertainty — with fidelity labelled per run.
Results that survive review
Zone-level comparisons, per-surface metrics and reports whose figures map to calculation workpapers — the analysis is designed to be independently checked.
Where this is grounded
The same geometry engine from screen to detail
Time-series shading from horizon profiles and prepared geometry ray-tracing is shared by both the rapid screening tier and the detailed PV engine — so the number you defend at feasibility is consistent with the number you engineer.