PowerVeritas Insights https://powerveritas.com/insights/ Field notes and worked examples on wind, solar and battery storage performance engineering from PowerVeritas, an independent Chartered Engineer-led consultancy. en-GB © 2026 PowerVeritas Ltd Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Solar panels like the sun but not the heat https://powerveritas.com/insights/solar-panel-temperature https://powerveritas.com/insights/solar-panel-temperature Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Three months of five-minute data from a solar site show why the angle of the sun must be corrected before temperature, and what heat costs a UK array across a year. Wind turbines feel the heat https://powerveritas.com/insights/temperature-power-curve https://powerveritas.com/insights/temperature-power-curve Wind Hot air is less dense air. Two years of open SCADA data show the same wind speed producing around 13% more power in cold air than hot, and why a density correction belongs in every performance assessment. Thu, 23 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT The tower door weld, a lifetime extension check not to miss https://powerveritas.com/insights/tower-door-weld-check https://powerveritas.com/insights/tower-door-weld-check Wind The weld around the tower door cutout is a stress concentration exposed to rainwater run-off. Why this small detail deserves a close look in every lifetime extension inspection. Wed, 15 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT Is climate change cutting wind yields? 50 years of data says no https://powerveritas.com/insights/climate-change-wind-speeds https://powerveritas.com/insights/climate-change-wind-speeds Wind Fifty years of ERA5 reanalysis at a Scottish wind farm shows a flat wind speed trend but energy swings of up to 16% between years. Variability, not climate change, is what breaks single-year budgets. Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT Blade failures are rising, here is where to focus https://powerveritas.com/insights/rising-blade-failures https://powerveritas.com/insights/rising-blade-failures Wind Wind turbine blade failures are no longer rare. Why the rate is rising, and where the industry should focus, from incident sharing to inspection, monitoring and the certification test basis. Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT How good is a nacelle transfer function? https://powerveritas.com/insights/nacelle-transfer-function-accuracy https://powerveritas.com/insights/nacelle-transfer-function-accuracy Wind A turbine's reported wind speed is a corrected reading, not a raw one. What the correction does, and how well it holds up against an independent lidar. Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT When a power curve falls, is the turbine really ageing? https://powerveritas.com/insights/power-curve-over-time https://powerveritas.com/insights/power-curve-over-time Wind A measured power curve that drops over the years looks like ageing. Several other causes produce the same shift, and only one is real degradation. Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT A small foundation seal with a big consequence https://powerveritas.com/insights/foundation-can-seal https://powerveritas.com/insights/foundation-can-seal Wind A simple visual check on a turbine foundation can have a real impact on the life of the asset. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT Why state of charge is so hard to estimate in a BESS https://powerveritas.com/insights/bess-state-of-charge https://powerveritas.com/insights/bess-state-of-charge BESS State of charge is one of the most important numbers for a battery asset, and one of the hardest to measure accurately. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT Diagnosing a faulty anemometer https://powerveritas.com/insights/diagnosing-faulty-anemometer https://powerveritas.com/insights/diagnosing-faulty-anemometer Wind How a simple sensor cross-check, a distribution comparison and a site-wide ratio map together separate a single faulty anemometer from genuine turbine underperformance. Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT How wind direction shapes a power curve in complex terrain https://powerveritas.com/insights/wind-direction-power-curve https://powerveritas.com/insights/wind-direction-power-curve Wind In complex terrain, the direction the wind approaches from can noticeably change a turbine's observed power curve. Tue, 12 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT UK onshore wind is getting more productive, curtailment is hiding it https://powerveritas.com/insights/onshore-wind-capacity-factor-curtailment https://powerveritas.com/insights/onshore-wind-capacity-factor-curtailment Wind Headline capacity factors have barely moved since 2004. Add back curtailed energy and the real trend points clearly upward. Wed, 06 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT Not all grid curtailment is uncontrollable https://powerveritas.com/insights/solar-grid-voltage-curtailment https://powerveritas.com/insights/solar-grid-voltage-curtailment Solar A solar inverter looked like it was suffering normal grid curtailment. The real cause was high grid voltage at the connection point, and it was fixable. Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT What a production-based availability contract does not cover https://powerveritas.com/insights/production-availability-monitoring https://powerveritas.com/insights/production-availability-monitoring Wind Production-based availability contracts cover less than many owners assume. Here is what typically falls outside the guarantee. Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT Two icing signatures on a power curve, only one is genuine https://powerveritas.com/insights/blade-icing-or-anemometer-fault https://powerveritas.com/insights/blade-icing-or-anemometer-fault Wind A power curve can show two patterns that both look like icing. The time series context reveals that only one of them actually is. Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT Two different faults, one near-identical power curve https://powerveritas.com/insights/look-alike-power-curve-faults https://powerveritas.com/insights/look-alike-power-curve-faults Wind Spotting a problem on the power curve is the easy part. Two very different faults can produce almost the same curve, and telling them apart needs more than the curve. Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT