Engineering License
Design your project for interconnection in minutes.
Create AC and DC stringing and your bill of materials, up to interconnection.
DC/AC stringing schedule
Full AC/DC calculations, wire size and material sizing, created automatically.
Full BOM
Panelboards, switchboards, switchgear, transformers, SCADA and more.
Design for cost
Test different equipment iterations in minutes.
What does the Engineering License add to a design?
Three layers on top of the layout: the AC equipment, the DC strings, and the bill of materials that prices them.
Place the AC equipment and carry it to the grid.
Inverters, transformers, switchboards and switchgear go on the project map, grouped under their parent device, followed by the MV line, the AC disconnect, the meters and the point of interconnection.
- Inverter settings: MPPT count and the minimum, target and maximum strings per inverter
- Central inverters on ground mount, with the number of combiners set per central
- An AC pad that groups a switchboard and everything under it into one placement
String the array with the wire losses in.
Set the allowable modules per string and Solesca strings the array. The wire material and installation method drive both the NEC sizing check and the loss calculation.
- The minimum code-compliant wire size, or a minimum you set
- Automatic upsizing until string loss is under your cutoff
- Rooftop rapid shutdown by optimizers, NEC 690.12(B)(2)(1) or microinverters
- Ground-mount combiner boxes, sized at the box and at the string fuse
A bill of materials you can bid from.
The BOM exports as a CSV from the engineering model, so the quantities in the bid are the quantities in the design. That is why teams buy this license at bidding stage, well before anyone needs a plan set.
- Modules and inverters
- Panelboards, switchboards, meters and the AC system disconnect
- Transformers and poles
- DC string sizes and lengths, and road area
Who does the Engineering License help?
Use Solesca's all-in-one platform to go from design to plan set in minutes. The sheets are generated from the design, so a module swap changes the drawing instead of restarting it.
- Sales
- Tighten your bids while reducing your reliance on engineering to design projects before the deal is closed.
- Engineers
- Go through multiple design iterations, optimizing systems for different equipment, knowing all your designs are code compliant.
- Procurement
- Build your design decisions around specific equipment to help reduce costs.
The detail, if you want it.
Everything above, answered plainly. Open what applies to you.
What does the Engineering License produce?
Bankable DNV SolarFarmer simulations, PVsyst and CAD exports from the same design, and, with the plan set add-on, a stampable interconnection package with single-line diagrams.
It carries one model from the layout you bid to the drawing an engineer signs. Over the Design License it adds AC equipment placement, DC stringing with wire losses, an engineering-grade bill of materials and unlimited DNV SolarFarmer simulation.
Why does the bill of materials matter at bidding stage?
Because a bid is a number, and the number is only as good as the equipment list underneath it. An engineering-grade bill of materials at bidding stage means the quantities you price are the quantities you will order, and the stringing they came from is the stringing you will build.
Teams tend to describe this license by its interconnection output, then use it earliest for the bill of materials. Both descriptions are fair. If you are evaluating it, look at the BOM first, because that is the part that changes what happens in the week you are in.
Does Solesca stamp the plan set?
No. Solesca produces a stampable set, and a licensed PE partner reviews and signs it in the jurisdiction the project sits in, billed at market rate through SOL Credits.
What Solesca does do is carry the same model that far without a rebuild. The layout that was bid becomes the layout that is drawn, which is the step most teams currently do twice.
How bankable are the simulations?
They run on DNV SolarFarmer through DNV's API Partner Program. ECA Power measured the delta against PVsyst at within 1%.
What is in an interconnection package?
Three sheets assembled from one design file: a site plan with the modules, placed equipment, parcel boundaries and roads on satellite imagery; the single-line diagram, from the modules to the utility grid; and an equipment settings sheet with the equipment list, notes, and inverter and relay settings.
It exports as a PDF plus a DXF folder with one DXF per sheet, so the drawing opens in CAD as well as on paper.
What can I export to CAD?
The layout and the electrical geometry leave as CAD files, and the shade scene leaves as a native PVC file for PVsyst.
Do I need the Design License as well?
No. The Engineering License includes everything in the Design License, so a team that only produces packages does not need both, and a seat that moves up does not lose anything.
What it adds is AC equipment placement, DC stringing with wire losses, the engineering-grade bill of materials and unlimited DNV SolarFarmer simulation. It is also the only license that can take the plan set add-on; the Design License cannot.
Does stringing account for wire losses?
Yes. DC stringing includes wire losses, so the yield figure reflects the wiring you will install.
Wire losses are the detail worth pausing on. Stringing that ignores them produces a yield figure that flatters the project, and it is the kind of error that survives all the way to a customer because nothing downstream contradicts it.
Does Solesca model terrain and grading?
Terrain yes, grading no. Terrain tracking is an add-on that attaches to either license: trackers and fixed-tilt tables placed on bare-earth elevation, held inside your racking's slope tolerances, with pile reveals and per-frame 3D shading. It has its own page.
Grading is where it stops. Solesca does not move earth, model cut and fill or produce a grading design, so a project whose engineering turns on earthwork volumes still needs a civil tool for that part.
Who on a team needs this license?
The engineers who own the deliverable. Sales and development seats can stay on the Design License and hand projects across.
Licensing is per seat, so teams commonly mix the two rather than buying one tier for everyone.
What changes for a team that adopts it?
ECA Power estimates it saves 300+ hours a year and measured a 50% increase in accuracy. Onyx Renewables stopped treating design as a front-of-project activity and now updates designs through construction and project completion, which is a quieter change than an hours figure but a more durable one.
Both of those are customers' own measurements of their own projects, not a Solesca benchmark, and what a team recovers depends on how much rebuilding it does today. A team that already carries one model through will see less.
How is it priced?
A seat license with unlimited projects; the plan set add-on, licensed per organization, for the interconnection package; and SOL Credits for the services you order, such as a PE stamp. Purchased credits don't expire while your account is open. See plans for the current model.
What does it not cover?
Residential, battery storage and construction-phase work sit outside the platform today.
There is no cap on system size, but a plan set is stampable only up to three transformers, typically around 15 MW. Above that, the export carries a reference-only disclaimer.
Bring a project that is already in the queue
Book a 30-minute demo with our U.S.-based engineering team. No CAD setup required. ECA Power estimates it saves 300+ hours a year.