---
title: What is PVWatts?
description: Solar Energy Production Calculator
---

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# What is PVWatts?

## Solar Energy Production Calculator

PVWatts is a solar energy production calculator that is made available by The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

🚧 **Did you know?**

Scanifly uses the exact same calculations as [NREL's PVWatts Calculator](https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/) to calculate the solar production for an array in the software. This ensures that the estimated production numbers that are produced by Scanifly are as accurate and widely acceptable as possible.

PVWatts estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations.

![PVWatts_Calculator](https://help.scanifly.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PVWatts_Calculator.png?width=670&name=PVWatts_Calculator.png)

Want to learn more about system parameters and losses? Check out our article, "[What do system parameters mean?"](https://help.scanifly.com/what-do-the-system-parameters-mean?hsLang=en)

 

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