Fat Spaniel expands its offerings

Solar Plant Vision tracks performance.

Renewable energy monitoring and reporting company Fat Spaniel Technologies announced two new offerings in September that it says can boost the efficiency of solar photovoltaic plants.

The new Software as a Service tools, Solar Plant Vision and Solar Operations Services, are designed to provide lifecycle management for projects from site selection to operation, and include billing, financial performance and marketing components.

Solar Plant Vision is directed toward plant operation teams and project managers. Through continual collection of operational, diagnostic and environmental data, the service can cut maintenance costs by 30 percent while increasing plant output and uptime, the company says. Solar Operations Services, meanwhile, provides a turnkey service managed by Fat Spaniel operations staff.

San Jose-based Fat Spaniel’s technology is deployed in about 2,500 locations. The tools represent a new direction for the company, expanding from monitoring plants’ operations to maximizing efficiency in the planning and project development stages, says vice president of marketing Tom Tansy.

The new product rollout could be just in time for a strong run-up in the solar market in late 2009 and early 2010, as stimulus funds start making their way to renewable projects, Tansy says. Making sure projects are as efficient as possible will be key to their financial viability, which is where IT solutions such as Fat Spaniel’s come in.

“Where we are as a market, the solar industry is emerging from low-tech to a new era where IT is hugely relevant,” he says. “It can drive performance and profitability, and drive out inefficiencies.”