Projects

All project pages are organized as a folio. 

On the left side bar is the general information about the site. This includes the name, client, address, site access instructions, an open issue summary, and the commercial operation date. 

The rest of the information regarding the project is organized using the tabs just under the SolarGrade top menu. We've outlined each tab below.

Project Details

This is where all of details of your project live. This includes:

• System information (system type, DC and AC size, ESS energy capacity, ESS max discharge rate)
• System design (voltage, modules per string, combiner boxes)
• Modules (make, model, power, quantity)
• Inverters (make, model, power, AC nominal voltage, quantity)
• Racking (type, make/model, tilt, azimuth)
• Progress tracking 

Team members

These are all of the team members associated with this project. They are organized based on user role (admin, manager, inspector). 

• Click Projects in the side navigation
• Select the "Add Project" button in the top right of the table
• Then "Add New Project"
• Add name, location (by address or coordinates), and contact (from database or add a new one)
  • These are the only required fields
  • You only need a primary contact in order to create the project
• Add a custom ID if you have an internal naming system
• Add system information and system design from your records
• Add modules and inverters (central, string, and microinverters)
  • Use the dropdown menu to select the make and model or manually add your own 
  • To add more than one module or inverter type, select the + icon to the right of the category header
  • The quantity is calculated based on system size. However, you can edit this value to reflect your drawings
• Add racking
  • To add more than one racking type by selecting the + icon
  • To add more than one tilt or azimuth, simply enter a comma after the first value
• Add energy storage information (these values do not autopopulate)
• Add any external links that you wish to be associated with the project
  • These will turn into buttons on the project page
• Add a project status
  • The options are Development, Pre-Construction, Construction, Commissioning & Energization, Operational, Systemic Remediation, Decommissioned​
• Assign project to your team
  • PLEASE NOTE: inspectors need to be assigned to both the project and the site visit in order to access both the project information and site visit information
• Click SAVE

You will then be prompted to upload project drawings. To georeference these drawings, click here.

• To edit your project drawings, first navigate to the project
• Select the "Documentation" tab
• Click "Edit/Add Drawings" and select the drawing files you wish to upload
  • Note: we recommend you link to all drawings, but only upload 10 drawings for optimized use
• Click "Add Drawings" again to upload the drawings
• Select the drawing you wish to use for georeferencing. You can rotate these drawings by hovering over the page you wish to edit and selecting the rotate icon in the top right corner of the page
• Crop the drawing to include only the layout of the site
• Move the red and yellow pins to opposite sides of the drawing and Google Maps view of the site
  • For example:
    • Drag the red pin to the top right corner of the site in both the map and the layout
    • Drag the yellow pin to the bottom left corner of the site in both the map and the layout
• If preferred, you can use the exact coordinates of select areas of your site and input them in the fields below the Google Maps view for the coordinates of the blue and yellow pins. This is most helpful in large utility scale sites that are in construction (and therefore not accurately reflected in Google Maps).  
• Select "Match"
• Make adjustments if necessary
• Click "Ready"
• Name the georeferenced layout
• Select DONE

To edit a project, there are two ways to do it.

1. Inside a Project

• From the "Project Details" tab, location the 3 vertical dots above the map preview 
• Click the pencil icon "Edit" option
• Make any necessary changes to the project information
• Click SAVE

2. From the Projects dashboard

• Find the project in the table
• Select the 3 vertical dots on the right side of the project line
• Click the pencil icon
• Make any necessary changes to the project information
• Click SAVE

• Navigate to the Projects tab
• Select the project you want to edit
• Scroll down through the project information until you see the "Progress Tracking" section header (if you reach the site visit log, you’ve gone too far)
• Select the "Add Project Tracker" button
• Input the name of the item you want to track (it could be modules, inverters, gremlins, piles, etc.)
• Input the target quantity (this is the total number or your goal)
• Every site visit has a "Progress Tracking" section at the top of the page, just above the "Generate Report" button. When your team works on a site visit, they can select the desired progress tracker for that particular site visit and input the appropriate values.
  • For example, if you installed 1,000 modules over the course of an site visit, you would input 1,000. The 1,000 modules installed during this site visit are then added to the cumulative amount for this particular project.
• When you publish a report, this data can be accessed within the report as line graphs. It can also be found on the project page for an at-a-glance view of the activity’s progress.

• From the projects dashboard, you can either:
• • Select the 3 vertical dots on the right side of the project line, OR
  • Navigate to the relevant project
    • In the left side panel, locate the 3 vertical dots at the top right corner of the side panel
• Click the trashcan icon
• Click CONFIRM

To archive a project:

• From the projects dashboard, you can either:
  • Select the 3 vertical dots on the right side of the project line, OR
  • Navigate to the relevant project
    • In the left side panel, locate the 3 vertical dots at the top right corner of the side panel
• Click the square symbol with a downward arrow

To unarchive a project:

• From the projects dashboard, select the toggle at the top of the page to view archived projects
• From the dashboard, you can either:
  • Select the 3 vertical dots on the right side of the project line, OR
  • Navigate to the relevant project
    • In the left side panel, locate the 3 vertical dots at the top right corner of the side panel
• Click the faded square symbol with a downward arrow on the far right of the project line

You can bulk download photos from various site visits by:

• Click the projects tab from the sidebar menu
• Find the project you want to export photos from
• Enter the project
• Navigate to the "Photos" tab within a project
• Locating the site visit you want to download from
• Select the DOWNLOAD PHOTOS button
  • This will download all your photos into a .zip file and rename them according to their location within the site visit.

There are two ways to perform this action. 

Option 1

This option is better for adding multiple people to one project.

• Go to the project you wish to assign the team member to
• Select the Team Members tab
• Click the EDIT button
• Select the + icon
• Add the team member in your account

Option 2

This option is better for adding one user to many projects.

• Navigate to the Teams page
• Find the team member you wish to add to projects
• Click the projects displayed in the "Associated Projects" column
  • This will open up an editing window
• Select the "Add to Projects" button
• Use the dropdown menu to select all projects you wish to assign the team member to
• Select ADD

SolarGrade allows you to export all of your project detail information to .csv file. To do this:

• Navigate to the projects page
• Use the filter button to the right of the search bar to narrow down your selection (if desired)
• Select the "Export" button located at the top right of the projects table
• Select "Export Projects"

Contacts in SolarGrade are people or organizations connected to a project who do not need access to the SolarGrade platform. They are mainly used to store important stakeholder information and make it easier for teams to manage communication and reporting related to a project. 

Unlike Team users, Contacts do not receive login credentials and cannot access SolarGrade. Instead, they serve as reference points for your projects and can be selected when sharing reports. 

Typical examples of Contacts include: 

• Asset owners or homeowners 

• EPC companies 

• O&M providers 

• General contractors 

• Financiers or investors 

• Developers or technical advisors 

• Other third-party stakeholders connected to the project 

Contact Information Fields 

When creating a Contact in SolarGrade, you can provide several pieces of information to help organize stakeholders across your projects. 

Company 
This field identifies the organization the contact belongs to. For example, this could be the EPC company, asset owner company, or contractor company involved in the project. 

Role 
Each contact can be assigned a role that describes their relationship to the project. SolarGrade provides multiple role options such as: 

• O&M Provider 

• EPC 

• Asset Owner 

• Asset Manager 

• Investor 

• Portfolio 

• Offtaker 

• Technical Advisor 

• Independent Engineer 

• Owner's Engineer 

• Developer 

• General Contractor 

• Civil Contractor 

• Electrical Contractor 

• Mechanical Contractor 

• 3rd Party 

• Other 

These roles help categorize stakeholders and make reporting and project organization easier. 

Full Name 
The name of the person representing the company or organization. 

Email Address 
The contact’s email address can be stored for communication or when sharing SolarGrade reports externally. 

Telephone / Mobile Number 
This allows your team to easily reach the contact when coordinating inspections, scheduling site visits, or discussing project details. 

Associating Contacts with Projects 

Each contact can be linked to one or multiple projects. This allows your team to quickly identify which stakeholders are related to a specific project. 

When a contact is associated with a project, your team can easily: 

• View who is involved with that project 

• Select contacts when sharing reports 

• Reference stakeholder information during inspections or project coordination 

Primary Contact Requirement 

Every project in SolarGrade requires one Primary Contact. 

This is usually the main client or organization associated with the work, such as the company being invoiced or the asset owner. 

If you encounter an error when creating a project that says a Primary Contact is required, it usually means one has not been selected yet. 

To fix this: 

• Go to the Contacts list 

• Click the star icon next to the contact’s Company name 

• This will mark them as the Primary Contact 

• Click Save 

Once a Primary Contact is set, you should be able to create the project without any issues. 

Common Use Cases 

Teams typically use Contacts in SolarGrade for the following: 

Homeowner or Asset Owner Information 
Store the owner’s contact details so inspectors or managers can coordinate site visits. 

Project Stakeholder Tracking 
Keep track of all organizations involved in a project such as EPCs, contractors, and investors. 

Report Sharing 
Contacts can receive the shared SolarGrade report link after a report is generated. 

Project Organization 
Clearly identify who owns, manages, builds, or operates the asset. 

Team users (Admins, Managers, Inspectors, and Viewers) are the people who actively use SolarGrade and log in to the platform. 

Contacts are external stakeholders connected to projects but do not access the platform directly. 

If you are requesting a project bulk upload in SolarGrade, please make sure to request the latest version of the Bulk Project Upload template from the Customer Support team. Using the most recent template helps ensure a smooth upload process. Once you have the template, please follow the instructions below when completing the file. 

REQUIRED FIELDS: 

• Contact (Columns W to AB): When entering contact information, please follow the same format used in the “Primary Contact” fields. This is where you’re going associate a financing partner or with a field service partner to a project. I would suggest to just pick one (1) primary contact with their details.
• Address Field (Column C): Please remove “GA” (or any state abbreviation) and “USA” from the address field. Only include the Block #, Street name, and/or ZIP code.   
• State Field (Column D): Use the 2-letter abbreviation for any state (e.g. “GA” for Georgia).  

NOT REQUIRED FIELDS:

• Commercial Operation Date (Column L): All dates must be written in the following format — YYYY/MM/DD.
• Custom IDs (Column B): For this field we don't allow spaces. It has 50-character limit. Some special characters are allowed (hyphen, underscore, period, comma, semicolon, colon).
• Fields with Multiple Values (Columns N, O, S, T): For fields that allow multiple values (e.g., Modules per String, Number of Combiner Boxes, or Racking Azimuth/Tilt), please separate entries using a comma + space (example: 4, 5, 6). Without space after the comma, the system will not recognize the values correctly.   
• Azimuth Values (Column T): These values must be whole numbers only. The system does not accept decimals, so please round them as needed.   
• Module & Inverter Equipment (Column AC to AM): In order to add equipment, we need all equipment-related fields to be fully completed (model, power rating, description, quantity, voltage [Vac], etc.). Please leave those fields blank if the details aren’t complete. Entering some, but not all, info will cause an upload error.  
• Multiple Equipment Types or Brands: If a project has multiple types or brands of equipment, each must be entered on a new line. For these additional lines, please leave the rest of the project information blank (the whole row, see column A to AB).  
• Inverter Typology (Column AH): please make sure to choose from the accepted values ("String inverter", "Central inverter", and "Microinverter"). These are case sensitive, so please enter as written above. 
• Racking Typology (Column R): 'Fixed tilt'
  'East-West Fixed Tilt'
  'Single Axis Tracker
• Link URL (Column AT): for any internal document sharing or reference, you should also provide a Link Name (Column AS), as the upload will cause an error without it.