How to use Forecast.Solar without Solar Panels

Energy
1

Hi,
I would like to see how much solar energy I could potentially produce and therefore include the Forecast.Solar sensor in the Energy Dashboard. Unfortunately it asks for a sensor from the solar panels, which are not yet installed.

Is there any way to have the forecast without solar panels in the dashboard and/or with a fake sensor?

2

https://toolkit.solcast.com.au/live-forecast

Not sure forecast.solar it’s not available in Australia.

You could setup a fake system with solcast and use the HACs solcast integration to do this though if it available in your country.

Ahh actually you will probably run into the same problem on the energy dashboard though.

You could make a fake solar sensor in mqtt I suppose. Or perhaps a fake template sensor.

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: "energy_solar_fake"
        device_class: energy
        state_class: total_increasing
        unit_of_measurement: "Wh" 
        state: 0
1 Like
3

Thank you @HasQT, I used the fake sensor, as it’s compatible with Forecast.Solar here in Sweden. I might post this as a feature request on github as I can imagine it would be a neat feature for people to estimate their “solar potential” at their home. There is no reason to make it necessary to have pv-panels on the roof to see the forecast…
Thanks a lot!

1 Like
4

You probably don’t need to make that request really… most forecasts are using “fake” data anyway. Fake being data input by the user… Just make up the system as if it were real…

5

You can use this tool instead: JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission
It is not a daily forecast, but you can use it for your purpose, I guess…

6

I was in a similar spot when I was planning my solar setup. Before I got my solar panels installed, I wanted to see potential energy production too. I ended up using a dummy sensor in the Forecast.Solar app to get a rough estimate.

When I finally got my solar panels Dublin, I found the actual production pretty close to the forecasted values. It’s a great way to plan and see what to expect. You can set up a fake sensor in your dashboard by creating a template sensor in Home Assistant that simulates the expected output. It’s not perfect, but it gives you a good idea until your real panels are up and running.