The purpose of this document is to provide a brief overview of the available photovoltaic systems engineering simulation software available. Some programs are specifically designed for photovoltaic applications while others include additional renewable energy simulation features. The information provided is collected from the respective product's website and thus can entail biased or missing information. Hopefully the compilation can grow and become more accurate as time goes by.
An excellent resource for comparing the technical specifications of PV software is Models Used to Assess the Performance of Photovoltaic Systems by Geoffrey T. Klise and Joshua S. Stein - a 2009 SANDIA REPORT (SAND2009-8258). In addition, a more recent complete overview article on the state of photovoltaic systems modeling is Production Modeling of Grid Tied PV By Tarn Yates and Bradley Hibberd in SolarPro (2010).
A more recent overview of the landscape of available solar software programs can be found in "The Solar Software Ecosystem" by Pamela Cargill, published in Solar Professional Magazine: http://web.archive.org/web/20180903173742/http://solarprofessional.com:80/articles/business-finance/the-solar-software-ecosystem?v=disable_pagination&nopaging=1
A recent published open-source software for optimization of hybrid energy systems:Solar Alone Multi-objective Advisor (SAMA)
This article highlights a number of new software products have entered the market in recent years with dramatically increased capabilities.
Optimal tilt angle and orientation: https://www.solmetric.com/annualinsolation-us.html
PV Systems Engineering Simulations[edit | edit source]
| Name | Cost/Open Source | Basic Description | Abilities | Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Alone Multi-objective Advisor (SAMA)[1] | Free of Charge/ Open Source | SAMA (Solar Alone Multi-objective Advisor) is an open-source (GNU GPL v3) energy system optimizer and analyzer mainly concentrated on stand-alone off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV)-based renewable energy systems (RES). SAMA allows for hybrid systems in locations that need a form of non-battery backup generation. Using SAMA, users can find the optimum size of a hybrid energy system for their property based on the electric load profile and meteorological data (irradiation, temperature and wind speed). Users are able to access economic data for their optimum energy system as the results of SAMA optimization and calculations. SAMA is developed inPython 3.9 using the NumPy, Numba, time, pandas, math, matplotlib and seaborn. |
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NPC, NPC without incentives, Total Solar Cost , NPC for only Grid connected system, Total Grid avoidable cost , Total Grid unavoidable cost , Total avoided costs by hybrid energy system, LCOE , LCOE without incentives , LCOE for only Grid connected system, Grid avoidable cost per kWh, Grid unavoidable cost per kWh, Solar Cost per kWh, Operating Cost, Initial Cost, Initial Cost without incentives, Total incentives received, Total operation and maintenance cost, Total Money paid to the Grid, Total Money paid by the user
PV Power, DG Power, Battery Energy In, Battery Energy Out, Renewable fraction, LPSP, Annual Load, Annual Served Load , Annual Capacity Shortage, Excess Electricity, Annual power bought from Grid, Annual Power sold to Grid, Grid Emissions , Annual fuel consumed by DG, DG Emissions, Levelized emission (LE) |
| Homer Pro | Standard Single user:
Base (no module included)=$187.5/mo Professional (4 selective module) =$373.5/mo Expert (all modules included)=$568.5/mo Academic: from $93.75 monthly for the base version to $284.25 for the expert version Student: $108.89 annually per student |
HOMER Pro is top-tier microgrid design software. It optimizes hybrid energy systems, combining renewables with traditional resources. Features include cost sensitivity analysis, diverse technology modeling, and system optimization. It models grid-tied/off-grid setups, prioritizing resiliency. With customizable libraries, economic projections, and emission estimates, it is globally used for power design, cost reduction, education, and energy awareness. | Optimization of hybrid energy systems and modeling of:
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| Homer Grid | Standard Single user:
From $333/mo to $665/mo Custom prices for enterprises |
HOMER Grid, another product from HOMER Energy, is designed to optimize the value of behind-the-meter, distributed energy systems while reducing demand charges and energy costs. It is especially well-suited for grid-connected systems with the possible use of renewable energy, energy storage, and combined heat and power | Better modeling of:
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Most of the Homer Pro outputs plus Demand Charge Savings |
| RETScreen [1] | Free of Charge | A decision support tool developed with the contribution of numerous experts from the Canadian government, industry, and academia. The software can be used worldwide to evaluate the energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for various types of Renewable-energy and Energy-efficient Technologies (RETs). | The software can model a wide variety of projects ranging from large scale multi-array central power plants, to distributed power systems located on commercial buildings and houses, to industrial remote wind-PV-genset hybrid power supplies, to stand-alone battery storage systems for lighting. For agriculture and water supply applications the daily and annual electricity use for water pumping can be estimated using a convenient water pumping tool. The software (available in multiple languages) also includes product, project and climate databases, and a detailed user manual. | Energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for central-grid, isolated-grid and off-grid photovoltaic (solar electric) projects. |
| NREL Solar Advisor Model (SAM) | Free of Charge/ Open Source | SAM allows users to investigate the impact of variations in physical, cost, and financial parameters to better understand their impact on key figures of merit. Runs on TRNSYS engine. | The Solar Advisor Model evaluates several types of financing (from residential to utility-scale) and a variety of technology-specific cost models for several and, eventually, all Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) technologies. The SETP technologies currently represented in SAM include concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough and dish-Stirling systems and photovoltaic (PV) flat plate and concentrating technologies. SAM uses the total installed cost, which is the sum of direct and indirect costs, to calculate the levelized cost of energy. Because how costs are assigned to each category does not affect the total installed cost, you can either choose to distribute profit, overhead, shipping, and other costs among the component categories (module, inverter, BOS, Installation) or include them as a single value in the indirect category (miscellaneous). | System energy output, peak and annual system efficiency, levelized cost of electricity, system capital and operating and maintenance costs, and hourly system production |
| PVWatts | Free of Charge | PVWatts is a web-based application developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that estimates the energy production and cost savings of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. It is a widely-used tool in the solar industry for preliminary evaluations of solar energy system performance. |
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| ESP-r | Free of Charge/ Open Source | ESP-r is an integrated modeling tool for the simulation of the thermal, visual and acoustic performance of buildings and the assessment of the energy use and gaseous emissions associated with the environmental control systems and constructional materials. In undertaking its assessments, the system is equipped to model heat, air, moisture and electrical power flows at user-determined resolution. | Building geometry can be defined via CAD tools, in-built CAD facilities or click-on-grid or image. ESP-r supports a building representation of arbitrary complexity (but most users work with models of 10-50 thermal zones. Models can be exported to other assessments tools such as EnergyPlus, Radiance (visual simulations) or VRML worlds.As required, component networks can be defined to represent, for example, HVAC systems, distributed fluid flow (for the building-side air or plant-side working fluids) and electrical distribution systems. Alternatively, users can use idealised environmental controls for early design-stage explorations. | An interactive results analysis module is used to provide many different views of simulation results, undertake a variety of performance appraisals and explore the interactions between assessment domains. Tools are provided to enable the construction of an Integrated Performance View which summarises performance over a range of relevant criteria. The range of analyses are essentially unrestricted and data can be exported to other analysis and graphing tools (but many users find they rarely need to access spreadsheets). |
| SolarGIS - pv Planner | 100x100 km region – 120 €; Large region (continent) – 450 €; Global coverage - 2000 € | SolarGIS - pvPlanner is professional new generation online simulation tool for site prospecting, prefeasibility and pre – design assessment, yield assessment of photovoltaic roof systems or power plants with horizont editor. | The simulation methods implement the latest knowledge and best-practices in solar radiation and pv modelling. The recent (February 2011) IEA SHC Task 36 data inter-comparison activity, has independently confirmed that SolarGIS is the best performing solar radiation database presently available on the market. pvPlanner is based on this datasource. Key features:
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Complet PV report (example) in.pdf format. It contains:Site info, PV system info, Geographic position, Terrain horizont and day lenght, Global horizontal irradiation and air temperature – climate reference, Global in-plane irradiation, PV electricity production in the start-up, System looses and performance ratio. |
| INSEL | Free learning edition; 1500 Euro for full version; 500 Euro for minimum version; 75 Euro for full version for students | INSEL is a modular simulation environment used to to understand, plan, monitor, and visualize energy systems. INSEL is a general-purpose graphical programming language, which can - in principle - solve any problem of computer simulation. The application fields of INSEL cover the topics solar irradiance simulation, photovoltaics and solar thermal applications. | Whereas INSEL is the calculation engine to solve the mathematical model, a commercial visualisation tool named HP VEE was chosen to graphically construct the model in the first place. The core component of INSEL is the inselEngine which is a full compiler that can interprete and execute applications written in the INSEL language or graphical preprocessors like HP VEE, for example. The core component of INSEL is the inselEngine which is a full compiler that can interprete and execute applications written in the INSEL language or graphical preprocessors like HP VEE, for example.A user-programmable environment inselUB in which practically all fields of engineering applications can be built in a very structured way. All standard programming languages like Fortran, C++ are supported. | Includes a variety of graphical and numerical outputs that is either built-in or can be user defined. These can entail different components of a PV system, including but not limited to optimum PV module parameters and recommended models, annual yield energy output, IV curves, cell temperature distribution and the corresponding effect on the performance of the cell, array, and plant, efficiency comparisons of fixed, 1-axis tracking, and 2-axis tracking, as well as efficiency gains or losses for tilted fixed angles. |
| SolarDesignTool | $50/month with a 14 day free trial, after which all permit packages are free until after our 2018 promotion period. See any pricing updates on their pricing page. | SolarDesignTool is an online tool that solar professionals can use to design and generate complete permit packages for residential electric grid-tied systems online. The tool allows the user to define installations areas/roof areas using either an xml roof model or the tool's built-in aerial image tracing tool. Users can define any number of roof faces and require that the system's array fit within those defined areas. The tool will then take each user through steps to specify the details of each array's components. These steps allow you to create a system using its System Builder, where you can enter in your system's module, inverter, racking system, module layout, and the string configuration your system requires. You can also create a system with multiple inverters by adding an array. | Generate full Permit Packages, Generate System Designs and other customer-facing documents, String Sizing, Panel and Inverter Comparison, Array Layout Design, MPPT Support, Racking Support, Multi-Inverter Support, Micro-Inverter Support, Define Roof faces and Obstructions, Define Constraints, Import 3D Data, Sharing Capabilities | List of all possible system configurations for supplied design parameters. System comparison table, a summary report of the system. The report includes the following data: Record low temperature and average high temperature of installation site, STC DC output of array, PTC DC output of array, CEC output of array, number, model names, and specs for inverters and modules, area of array, maximum AC output current, dimensions of each roof face, and array layout, and distances of each row of modules. It also includes basic schematics of the roof, including length and width dimensions of the roof faces and layouts. The report is available in both HTML and PDF formats. |
| Aurora Solar Software [https://www.aurorasolar.com/ | Basic License: $ 159 /user/mo; Premium License: $ 259 /user/mo; Custom Pricing for Enterprise Users | An end-to-end solar design and sales solution that allows solar contractors to quickly and remotely design an accurate solar design for a site using satellite imagery, estimate how much energy it will produce and the resulting savings, model different financing scenarios, and develop customized sales proposals. | The software can model commercial and residential solar systems. Key Features:
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Accurate 3D site models, bankable shade reports, system design, bill of materials (based on selected components), single line diagrams, customizable sales proposals. |
| PV F-Chart | $400.00 for single user
$600.00 for educational site |
PV F-CHART is a comprehensive photovoltaic system analysis and design program. The program provides monthly-average performance estimates for each hour of the day. The calculations are based upon methods developed at the University of Wisconsin which use solar radiation usability to account for statistical variation of radiation and the load. | Can model utility interface systems, battery storage systems, and stand-alone systems. Includes fixed, 1-axis, and 2-axis tracking as well as concentrators tracking options. Comprises of weather data for over 300 locations, ability to include additional weather data, fast execution, hourly load profiles for each month, statistical load variation, buy/sell cost differences, time-of-day rates for buy/sell, life-cycle economics with cash flow, and monthly parameter variation. Graphical and numerical outputs come in both English and SI Units. | System performance results, efficiency, load, economics summary, life cycle costs, equipment costs, initial investments, solar fraction, etc. |
| PVSYST | Pro30 1 year subscription: ~950 Euro for one machine license;
Premium 1 year subscription: ~1,235 Euro for one machine license |
PVSYST 4.33 is a PC software package for the study, sizing, simulation and data analysis of complete PV systems. It is suitable for grid-connected, stand-alone, pumping and DC-grid (public transport) systems, and offers an extensive meteorological and PV-components database. This software is oriented towards architects, engineers, and researchers, and holds very helpful tools for education. It includes an extensive contextual Help, which explains in detail the procedures and the models used. | Tools include the meteo database management, with graphical displays or tables of data. PVsyst includes a database of around 330 sites in the world. Since PVsyst version 4.3 you can easily import meteo data from many popular meteorological sources (Meteonorm, Satellight, US TMY2, Helioclim-2, WRDC, NASA-SSE, PVGIS-ESRA, and the complete database of the Retscreen software). Custom meteo files can be easily imported in any ASCII format (as for instance from the NSRDB). The component database holds over 1750 PV modules, 650 inverters, nearly 100 solar pumps and dozens of batteries or regulator models. Custom updates of the database are very easy, on the basis of usual manufacturer data sheets. | Extensive output of solar geometry (sun paths, incidence angles, etc.); Clear sky irradiation yields on tilted planes; Quick meteo calculations on tilted planes, with horizon, sheds or sun-shields shadings; Transposition factor plots, for plane orientation optimization; Generation of meteo hourly synthetic files from monthly values; Hourly meteo plots, and calculations of irradiation on tilted planes, also with on-graph comparison with clear day model; Various graphs of the component's behaviour (PV modules, batteries, pumps); Electrical PV-array behaviour under partial shadings, mismatch or double-orientation; Operating voltage optimisation tool. |
| TRNSYS | $2,530 for educational use (10 user license), $5,060 for commercial use (single user license) | TRNSYS is a transient systems simulation program with a modular structure. It recognizes a system description language in which the user specifies the components that constitute the system and the manner in which they are connected. | The modular nature of TRNSYS gives the program tremendous flexibility, and facilitates the addition to the program of mathematical models not included in the standard TRNSYS library. TRNSYS is well suited to detailed analyses of any system whose behaviour is dependent on the passage of time. TRNSYS has become reference software for researchers and engineers around the world. Main applications include: solar systems (solar thermal and photovoltaic systems), low energy buildings and HVAC systems, renewable energy systems, cogeneration, fuel cells. | Open-ended |
| SolarPro | Solar Pro is by Japanese company LaPlace systems that serves to calculate power production of solar arrays subject to different physical and shadow variations. | Users can determine the influence of shade from buildings or objects, thus allowing for optimal settings and module design. The system calculates the I-V curve of solar cell modules accurately and quickly based on the electric characteristic for each product of each company. The software calculates the amount of electricity generated based on the altitude, longitude, and condition of the atmosphere at the location of the solar cell allowing users to get precise results. Solar Pro quickly finds out the necessary information on financial analysis of the PV system from power calculations and input data of system cost. | I-V curve, power generation, life cycle analysis. | |
| PV DesignPro | $249.00 for Solar Design Studio CD-ROM | PV Design Pro-G is a suite of Windows 95, 98, NT, and Win2000 compatible software designed to simulate photovoltaic energy system operation on an hourly basis for one year, based on a user selected climate and system design. Three versions of the PV-DesignPro program are included on the Solar Design Studio CD-ROM: "PV-DesignPro-S" for standalone systems with battery storage, "PV-DesignPro-G" for grid-connected systems with no battery storage, and "PV-DesignPro-P" for water pumping systems. | The purpose of the programs are to aid in photovoltaic system design by providing accurate and in-depth information on likely system power output and load consumption, necessary backup power during the operation of the system, and the financial impacts of installing the proposed system. PV-DesignPro is directed at individuals who consider themselves as professional PV system designers and researchers, but has been completed in such a way as to make it possible novice designers to evaluate system designs. | Solar Fraction charts, by month of the year; Battery states of charge by month (maximum, average, minimum); Annual performance table (energy produced, necessary backup, and states-of-charge); An Annual Energy Cost Analysis that includes prospective cash-flows based on costs of purchased energy, and any sold PV energy; A Lifecycle Cost Analysis that is a comprehensive pro-forma analysis of the system design based on system cost, costs of backup energy, prices of sold energy, maintenance and replacement costs, and the estimated life of the system. A rate of return is calculated, as is an overall price per kWh of the system, and pay back years; Charts can be viewed that cover every hour of the year and include battery SOC, battery voltage, solar radiation on a horizontal surface, solar radiation on the array, load and backup watts, panels efficiency, panel cell temperature, angles of incidence, slope angle, and the azimuth angle. |
| PV*SOL | $398.00 for single user | PV*SOL basic was created to keep things fast and easy by being a easy-to-use and intuitive user interface. The program is backed by Valentin Software's 20+ years of experience developing industry solar sales, design and simulation tools. | Design systems containing up to 1,000 modules (up to 300kWp, depending on the PV module size). Photo Plan allows you to put the PV array on a digital photo of the customer's house, while determining the roof size and pitch from digital photo. Size systems based on installation area, digital photos of the home, customer loads or desired kWp. Automatic inverter selection and string sizing, according to NEC temperature requirements. Automatic calculation of cable sizes and losses.Select climate data via a map or ZIP code. Comprehensive financial analysis.Utility rates and incentives for all major US solar markets, pre-selected by the project location. Integrated database containing over 1,000 US climate locations, over 6,000 PV modules and 1,200 inverters. Automatic internet updates keep the database up-to-date. | Customer reports containing system information, production details, system financials and photo realistic arrays.
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| PV*SOL Expert | $1480 | The Dynamic Simulation Program with 3D Visualization and Detailed Shade Analysis for PV Systems. | PV*SOL Expert makes it possible to carry out a 3D visualization of PV systems with shade calculation based on 3D objects. The program calculates the frequency distribution of the shade onto the roof area caused by the objects entered in the program. The results are shown in a graph. This makes it possible to reach a preliminary decision about the roof area to be covered. The visualization in 3D mode provides the user with vital information on the course of shade over a period of a day or a year. | Simulation of shading in 10 minute intervals, Yield simulation takes account of the precise shading ratio for each module. Easy to use configuration of modules with inverters, Automatic and manual PV module roof coverage, taking account of restricted areas, Animated visualization of the course of shade for any point in time, Visualization of annual irradiation reduction for each point of the PV area, Optimization of PV module coverage and configuration corresponding to the shading situation. |
| BlueSol | BlueSol Express €490.00 BlueSol Design €790.00 |
BlueSol is a software for the design of photovoltaic systems in every country in the world. It allows you to perform the entire process of designing a PV system, from the preliminary assessment of producibility to the realization of the project documentation. BlueSol Express is the base version for easily design, BlueSol Design has advanced features for a complete project management. |
Use of wizards or direct editing for the dimensioning of the photovoltaic system; insertion and verification of cables and electrical components; integrated CAD system to arrange modules, strings, cables, panels and inverters in the planimetry; 3D visualization of layout with simulations of shading of near obstacles and assessments of irradiations on surfaces; electrical scheme automatically created; irradiations specified by the user, from NASA-SSE world wide data, or imported from PVGIS; detailed economic analysis. | Technical documentation of the project produced as editable Word documents obtained from customizable templates:
An integrated RTF editor is available. |
| i-Pals WEB | ￥50,000/Free Trial Version | i-Pals WEB is PV simulation software. It enables you to estimate both residential and commercial projects with highly accuracy. i-Pals shows operation workflow and has default setting so that it helps people to get used to it easily.
It makes the operations easier that each functions ends itself. You can make a project in 15 minutes*.
The key features are following |
This software supports user for designing layout, designing strings,
making estimation, simulating power generation and shadow deterioration, comparing different projects. |
Power generation(yearly, monthly and daily), shadow diagrams, system diagrams, payback period, construction estimation, electric cable length calculator. |
| DEKSOSFT Photovoltaics [2] | 93 € annualy | PHOTOVOLTAICS is a specialized program for calculating electricity produced by the photovoltaic system. In the current version, these systems are supported:
Photovoltaic power plant with a converter connected to the distribution system Photovoltaic power plant with inverter and batteries connected to the distribution system Photovoltaic power plant with inverter and accumulation of surplus to hot water Photovoltaic power plant designed exclusively for hot water heating |
The calculation step is 10 minutes
User-selectable details for entering the power consumption profile and the efficiency of each element Possibility to evaluate the solar panel shading using the program 3D EDITOR Detailed view of results using DesignBuilder Results Viewer Detailed calculation of hot water storage to optimize the load for two cases of technical solution (bivalent tray, two separate trays) |
Energy production and savings. |
Appropedia Resources[edit | edit source]
- Brand New Open-Source tool for optimal sizing of hybrid energy systems-SAMA
Case studies investigated with SAMA
- For large area PV potential modeling r.sun in GRASS has been shown to be useful for planning solar farms. See full details at An open source simulation of photovoltaic yield with r.sun over large regions
- For large area PV potential modeling for rooftops see: Estimating the rooftop PV potential of a large-scale geographical region
- Regional Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Potential Literature Review
- Image Recognition with Feature Analyst
- Shading losses in solar photovoltaic potential at the municipal scale
- Using LiDAR to assess rooftop solar photovoltaic potential on a large scale
- Automated quantification of solar photovoltaic potential in cities
Other[edit | edit source]
- For microgrids see Hybrid microgrids literature review#Tools for system planning.2C design.2C and control
- PV Lighthouse - Australian PV software repository - lots of online programs from cells up.
- PV Lib - A set of documented functions for simulating the performance of photovoltaic energy systems.
- Solar prospector - free NREL supported GIS web interface for finding good locations for solar farms
- Integrated Energy Project (IEP) Model introduces a common language to project stakeholder software applications – it provides a comprehensive, standardized definition of an EE/DR+PV project, as well as how stakeholders can communicate between each other about that project. This will simplify and streamline the process, reduce time and costs for both the consumer and contractors, produce a better ROI for both, and remove a key market barrier for the adoption of both EEM's and solar energy. - free
- Blue Oak Energy and Solar Pro Magazine's Solar Select - web based PV string, array and Inverter sizing calculator. Nice for quickly comparing basic system configurations.
- Solmetric Suneye - $1500 +300 for GPS ability
- SolmetricIPV - $29.99 iPhone Based Solar site assessment tool and estimator
- Solar Shack - Off-grid trail lighting system.
- NREL's In my Backyard - free web-based PV system estimator - allows you to draw system on a Map.
- HOMER -- National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) computer model HOMER will be distributed and supported by a new group, HOMER Energy. HOMER is a computer model that simplifies the task of evaluating design options for both Off-grid and Grid-connected Distributed generation (DG) applications. HOMER's optimization and sensitivity analysis algorithms allow you to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a large number of technology options and to account for variation in technology costs and energy resource availability. Homer also has a user community here.
- NREL's PVWatts Viewer ziocode web-based PV Watts.
- View3D
- Griddler Solar - for simulating modules with different cell layouts.
- Chetu provide custom software solutions specialising in Solar Asset Management & PV Design Software
- Options from the Solar Design Company http://www.solardesign.co.uk/pv.php in the UK or http://www.valentin.de/index_en_page=photovol
- PV*express is the quick and easy design program for grid-connected photovoltaic systems.
- PV*SOL is a fully featured dynamic simulation programme for the design and calculation of photovoltaic system performance.
- PV*SOL Expert is the new 3D design tool for modelling photovoltaic system performance.
- ↑ User:Seyyed Ali Sadat; User:J.M.Pearce (2023). "A Free and open-source microgrid optimization tool: SAMA the Solar Alone Multi-Objective Advisor" (Open-Source Software). Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group. Canada. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2023.117686.