Installation of the desktop application

The installer contains everything you need to install and run the SolarFarmer desktop application on your machine.

Download the latest SolarFarmer installer from the DNV portal web site:

1. Go to the SolarFarmer Knowledge Centre (if you need to request access, email solarfarmer@dnv.com. You need an active SolarFarmer license to be able to access the downloads).
2. Click on the Downloads link to show the details of the latest release.
3. Click on the 'Download installer' link to download the installer file.
4. Once the installer has downloaded, double-click the file to start the installation (Administrator permissions will be needed).

Follow the instructions in Desktop licensing to set up your software license.

Recommended System Requirements

SolarFarmer is designed to run on a Windows PC with the following specifications:

OS	Windows 10 or Windows 11
Processor	3GHz processor or above. The more cores the better.
RAM	16GB (or more)
Graphics card	NVIDIA Quadro K600 equivalent or above
Resolution	1920 x 1200
Mouse	Mouse with mouse wheel

Running SolarFarmer on an Apple Mac

SolarFarmer does not run natively on an Apple Mac. However, it is possible to run it on your Mac using a virtual desktop package, such as Parallels Desktop, that can run other operating systems.

For a comparison between the different versions of Parallels Desktop go to their web page and click on 'Compare' at the top:

• The Standard Edition only supports 8GB virtual RAM for each virtual machine. SolarFarmer will generally need more than this.
• The Pro and Business Editions support up to 128GB virtual RAM and 32 virtual CPUs; much better for running SolarFarmer.

Running calculations in the cloud from SolarFarmer

No extra installations are needed to be able to run calculations in the cloud from the SolarFarmer desktop application. However, you must be registered with the SolarFarmer web service and retrieve your API token.

You then either set the SolarFarmer API token setting in the Application Preferences dialog, or set the environment variable SF_API_KEY with the value of your API token. The desktop application will then be able to use this token to run calculations in the cloud.

To set this up on your PC:

1. Acquire your API token
   See Acquiring your Web API Token for instructions on how to do this.

   You must have a Veracity account (https://www.veracity.com/ - DNV's cloud platform) to use the system, and be registered on the SolarFarmer web service.

   If, when logging in with your Veracity account, you are not registered and you believe you should be, please email solarfarmer@dnv.com and we can add you.

2. Set the SolarFarmer API token field in the Application Preferences or set the SF_API_KEY environment variable

   • To set the SolarFarmer API token in the Application Preferences dialog
     

     • Open the SolarFarmer application and click on the File menu, then Preferences.
     • Click on the SolarFarmer API tab.
     • Enter your API token in the SolarFarmer API token field.
     • Click OK to save the changes.
       

   • To set the SF_API_KEY environment variable
     

     • On your PC, open settings by clicking the Windows Start Menu and the Settings Gear, then typing "environment variables" in the search box and selecting Edit environment variables for your account.
       

     • The top half of the Environment Variables window is for User variables. Click the New button to enter a new user environment variable.

     • Type SF_API_KEY in the Variable name field, paste your API access token in the value field, and click OK to save the changes. Then click OK again to close the Environment Variables window.

     • Restart SolarFarmer
       

Once your API token is set in one of the above two ways you will see the Cloud option enabled in the Energy chapter of SolarFarmer.

If the API token is not set then the cloud option is grayed out. A green check mark indicates that a connection is established with the SolarFarmer web service and the versions of the API and core calculation engine are displayed.

If you see a red X or the connection fails, check your API access token is setup correctly in either your environment variable or preferences dialog, and click 'Retry'. If the trouble persists please contact solarfarmer@dnv.com.

Important

Your API access token is a secret. Treat it like your password. Never share it with anyone.

If you believe your token has been compromised, let SolarFarmer support know (solarfarmer@dnv.com) and regenerate your token on the web service website. This will immediately make any previous tokens unusable.