About Us

About US

Concept

The SoDa Service is a broker to a list of services and webservices, i.e. it offers a one-stop access to a large set of information relating to solar radiation and its use. The SoDa Service builds links to other resources that are located in various countries.

To answer a request, the SoDa Service invokes several resources to elaborate the appropriate answer and ensures the flow and exchange of information between the services and itself, as well as with the customer.

Overview

SoDa provides historical, real-time, and forecast solar radiation and weather data services.

Our solar radiation data services are derived from a method using images from Meteosat geostationary satellites.

Historical solar radiation and weather data are used to assess the solar resource of a site.

⇒ Archives time series are also used to produce Typical Meteorological Years which are a good indication for the production calculation of a solar power plant under study. TMYs can be used in PVSyst and SAM power generation simulation software.


The real time and forecast data for the current day and the next day are inputs in the software for monitoring the electricity production of solar photovoltaic and thermal farms.

⇒ They are used to verify the proper functioning of the power plant and to predict the amount of electricity that can be produced.


SoDa provides ultraviolet radiation and active photosynthetic radiation data services in the fields of health, agriculture, and the marine environment.

It is also an access to many altitude, astronomical and atmospheric services.

SoDa story

The SoDa Service originates from a European project funded by the European Commission in 1999. The SoDa project was led by Mines ParisTech.

SoDa is implemented in 2003 by Mines ParisTech and managed since 2013 by the research center O.I.E. of Mines ParisTech (Center Observation, Impact, Energy) which put every effort on the assessment and analysis of spatial and temporal aspects of renewable energies resources and the environmental impacts of energy systems.

The research center O.I.E. is a common laboratory (or structure) of MINES ParisTech and ARMINES. ARMINES, a structure created in 1967, is based on the concept of research-orientated towards the industry. With more than 600 employees at ARMINES (teaching scientists, research engineers, doctoral candidates, postgraduates, technicians, administrative personnel), they support research together with their colleagues from the schools in joint research centers from ARMINES/ Schools.

Apr. 2009, TRANSVALOR S.A., a French SME founded in 1984, oversees the commercialization and exploitation of SoDa and participates in innovative research projects.

Since July 2023, Vaisala Oyj has acquired SoDa unit to integrate the team and its expertise to a whole new innovative project.

SoDa products are developed in partnership with the research center O.I.E. of Mines ParisTech, Armines, and Vaisala Oyj.


Research Center O.I.E.


 

SoDa's Figures





35+ years of research
70 000 unique visitors in 2020
150+ millions automatic data requests to HC3 in 2020
190+ testimonies on real cases from users
250+ companies since 2017 who trust us!