Unlock Your Power Potential: Why Choose RatedPower vs Helioscope?

A solid Helioscope alternative

4.5+150 reviews in G2

Are you tired of not achieving your PV plant project goals on time? Do you feel like you need a few extra days a week to finalize your daily tasks? If you are exploring options like Helioscope to solve your problems, we can offer you a better solution. RatedPower will help you:

  • Documentation
    Access +300 pages of documentation
    to catch all opportunities with off-takers on time
  • Built for utility-scale
    Forget about project size limitations and
    cater to big PV plant projects
  • Collaborative
    Avoid at all costs team misalignement and inefficent workflows through a
    streamlined and collaborative process

In the following section, we'll provide a comparative analysis to help you understand the value you could be gaining with RatedPower compared to Helioscope.

Helioscope Alternatives

RATEDPOWER VS. HELIOSCOPE

What’s the difference between RatedPower and Helioscope software?

Helioscope software is used for C&I solar project creation. The main target is developers in the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) solar industry. They have limited experience in utility-scale solar. Check out this comparative table to learn more about how you can add value to your projects and teams with RatedPower.

Helioscope
Scope
Focused on C&I. Limited experience in utility-scale solar.
Specialized in utility-scale solar. +3.35TW PV plants are designed using our software.
Pricing
Flexible pricing with only one user per license. Non-collaborative tool.
Different price packages with unlimited users per license. Easy for users to collaborate withing the tool.
Documentation
Customizable reports and sales proposals. Limited documentation output.
Easily downloadable documentation, including BoM, CAPEX or SLD. +300 pages, available in multiple editable formats.
Designing
Bankable EY model with 3D shading analysis. Limited design process (manual drawing and placement of equipment).
Detailed design automation in minutes including power stations, MV cabling, interconnection facility, OHL and BESS.
Topography
No topography analysis.
In-depth topography analysis, including earthwork calculations.

Explore your missed benefits with Helioscope

You're not ready to make a decision yet? No problem. Link with our sales team or check out our software at your own pace through this free product tour.

RatedPower vs Helioscope

Why choose RatedPower instead of Helioscope?

  • Cater for projects bigger than 15MW
  • Reinforce team collaboration and alignment for better efficiency
  • Forget about lost opportunities with off-takers due to limited documentation

Thousands of professionals choose to work with our solar software

EPCists expediting PV design and deliverables with solar software

«We looked for a tool that was quick for performing basic design and optimization, automatically producing deliverables. RatedPower increased the number of bids we could prepare and submit by around 50%.»

Stefano PapaleGlobal Head of Business Development at FATA
Stefano Papale

Accelerating solar design from 5GW to 30GW per year

«Before RatedPower, there was a high level of variability, simple land layout to more irregular layouts. Now, we can quickly filter down sites from what is possible to what is realistic.»

Robert WrightDirector for Solar and Storage at Burns & McDonnell
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Expanding solar projects beyond local borders

«We can now run simulations hundreds of times to find the most optimal solution for our customers, considering everything from modules, inverters, and pitch distance, to the financial assessment of all these different configurations.»

Grant PadiniProject Planner for Utility-Scale PV Systems at Ampere Dynamic
Grant Padini

Transitioning from 1MW ground-mounted projects to 250MW in 9 months

«RatedPower really helped us eliminate our bottlenecks. It goes beyond other tools because it helps us design not just the low voltage or medium voltage, but also the connection point to the grid.»

Lorik HaxhiuFounder, iRN
Lorik Haxhiu

Harnessing RatedPower to carry out invaluable PV equipment analysis

«RatedPower provides us with simplicity and flexibility in our solar projects while requiring fewer resources. Other software options typically demand more resources on our end to complete these calculations.»

Nicolás Fernández-VelillaSystem Solution Engineer at Sungrow
Nicolás Fernández

Empowering solar PV design customization through faster iterations

«In one or two weeks, I became very familiar with the software. I was able to do more iterations on our solar layouts, and we could fill the interconnection requests in no time.» 

Íñigo Sangroniz Solar Development Engineer at Solea Power

Competitive positioning in large-scale overseas PV plant bidding

«RatedPower has a solid customer base and good reputation abroad. It delivers required documents in multiple languages for our global bids while adopting international design standards»

Feng YuHead of New Business Department, Overseas Business Division at POWERCHINA
Feng Yu

Optimizing PV projects and overcoming the limitations of legacy software 

«We have received a highly professional response when we needed support or training from the team. RatedPower helps us optimize our projects and provides us with a significant advantage over our competitors

Saad UmerExecutive Manager, Solar PV Network Head at ACWA Power
Saad Umer

Enhancing land assessment efficiency for PV developers

«RatedPower produces a set of documentation to deal with most of the environmental agencies' requirements and for application of grid connection authorization processes.»

Luis Guilherme CastroSolar Development, Engineering Manager at Casa Dos Ventos

RatedPower's speed helps us boost our competitive advantage

«Now we can turn around design documents within hours and minutes to stakeholders, landowners, partners or engineers, to get through our regulatory process. This has allowed us to move projects forward faster.»

Megan ParsonsChief Engineer at Blue Ridge Energy
Megan Parsons

Centralizing solar development in one app

«We used to use a mix of tools like AutoCAD, spreadsheets and PVsyst. Now with RatedPower, our team can be innovative and explore more possibilities without wasting time, as each design only takes minutes to run.»

Thomas GerstchHead of Engineering at Iberdrola
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Iberdrola

Get real-life inspiration from energy professionals like you

Check how other development and engineering teams are leveraging software to increase ROI and mitigate risks of their utility-scale solar assets.

All success stories

What are the main advantages for you?

Check out how you can gain a competitive edge by using RatedPower's software and start increasing your profits by more 20%!

From solar site planning to feasibility study and beyond

Unlock the potential and boost the productivity of your development and engineering teams across the entire PV project lifecycle. Find how Helioscope competes against their alternatives or use cases.

Prospect sites efficiently

Easily clone your PV plant designs and add, remove, or edit parcels within the project. Change any equipment—such as modules, inverters, or racking systems. Analyse prices, LCOE, energy production, and more. Prepare the project documentation ready for later stages.
See this feature in action
Prospect sites efficiently

Find the best electrical configuration

Iterate the electrical configuration of your project. Group the string in pitch or axial direction. Pick the design of your solar field— with either a string box or a DC bus system. Define the cable standard and use a range of parameters for each cable type. Compare each electrical setup and create the project documentation.
See this feature in action
Find the best electrical configuration

Hybridize your plant with BESS

Add AC-coupled BESS to new or existing PV plant projects. Pick the storage inverter and the number of inverters per PCS. Select maximum or a specific capaicty. Define the supply cycle duration, and the dimensions of PCS, containers and distances between blocks. Download the BESS design report, layout or SLD.
See this feature in action
Hybridize your plant with BESS

Perform cut-and-fill cost-benefit analyses

Use Google Earth or your own topography data within your design. Define installation limits for your racking so they’re excluded from your layout and apply earthworks where necessary. Use the BoQ to determine the total cut-and-fill volume and make confident data-driven decisions.
See this feature in action
Perform cut-and-fill cost-benefit analyses

Optimize land use

Find the best civil configuration to make the most of your acreage. Define your site and upload your topography —including cut-and-fill. Optimize your project by either maximizing or setting a specific capacity. Iterate your layout by adjusting the pitch distance or AC/DC ratio and setting power station location and setbacks.
See this feature in action
Optimize land use

Simplify your interconnection process

Design your substation or switching and breaking station by picking your preferred electrical standard using a range of available parameters. Manually choose the type or size of the power transformer, the whole gen tie layout and set losses at substation transformer level.
See this feature in action
Simplify your interconnection process

Quote projects with accurate BoM, CAPEX, and LCOE

Define the year of your project simulation to calculate output according to standard deviation. Upload horizon and albedo and set advanced parameters for losses. Use the built-in CAPEX templates or upload templates used by your company’s financial team. Create a BoM, and a comprehensive financial analysis of your plant ready to hand over to your off-taker.
See this feature in action
Quote projects with accurate BoM, CAPEX and LCOE

Determine project capacity and energy yield

Each tweak in your plant design will be reflected in the rated power, peak power, DC/AC ratio, or BESS-related results. Analyze the energy production estimates over time. Get energy yield results, design reports, and losses. Iterate your design based on the results of these data points until your project is optimized.
See this feature in action
Get project capacity and energy yield

Find the optimal layout with GCR, tilt and DC/AC ratio iterations

Easily edit those parameters for each design iteration of your plant. Use the powerful batch design to create up to ten simulations simultaneously with slight variations in GCR or DC/AC ratios. Compare them to find your optimal project layout.
See this feature in action
Find the optimal PV plant layout with GCR and DC/AC ratio iterations

We've got you covered

Helioscope restricts usage to one user per license, limiting its collaborative capabilities across multiple teams. In contrast, platforms like RatedPower offer licenses with unlimited users, facilitating better collaboration and project organization.

Helioscope primarily caters to Commercial and Industrial solar projects and lacks specialized features for utility-scale projects. Developers, EPCists, or engineers focused on utility-scale projects may find RatedPower software more suitable, given its extensive track record of over 100,000 utility-scale projects and a user base of over 2600 worldwide.

RatedPower is built for developers, EPCists, engineers and consultants like you to facilitate day-to-day work. Our software is user-friendly and ideal for preliminary design work and project plans. 

The RatedPower software is used to get quick estimations on site location, inverter selection, grid point, electrical configuration, amongst others. You can leverage additional calculations like BESS-Coupling, topography, sub-hourly meteo data, etc.

Through our software you can export your designs and projects to CAD and other compatible software. You can use the software on any device and system (Microsoft, OS, etc.).

Our dedicated team of technical experts is readily available to support you with your questions. In addition to that, we have dedicated explanatory materials at your disposal. Talk to a sales representative or check out our knowledge hub section.

We listen to and value our customers’ feedback and believe that it’s the core of our software development. How do we do that? Through ongoing surveys, and dedicated meetings to collect insights on what we should continue doing and what we should improve or add to make our software more complete.

Questions about how RatedPower compares to Helioscope?

Ask our solar experts about RatedPower products, pricing, security or deployment.

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