What a trial gets
A result that stands up to review
A trial is only as good as the record behind it. These six things are built in from the first day.
Trial design
Built to measure small gains
Control and guard rows, a bare baseline before anything changes, treatments installed one at a time, and a repeat. Namindo engineers help set out a trial that can tell a few per cent from noise.
Independent logging
Nothing on the host's network
Each site has its own solar-powered logger and cellular modem. Readings are kept every minute, sent every hour over an encrypted link, and held on site for thirty days through any outage.
Channel register
Every reading traced to a certificate
Each channel is held with its instrument, serial number and calibration history. The certificate before installation and the one after the trial bracket every series.
Records that hold
No quiet changes
Entries cannot be edited or deleted. A wrong reading is voided with a reason and stays on record. Photos are fingerprinted on upload, and every download is written to the audit log.
Model against measured
The answer, with its uncertainty
Each site's model runs beside the measured data, minute by minute, sensor by sensor. Gains are reported as the change from the baseline, with a 95 per cent interval, so reviewers see the result and how sure it is.
The right view
One record, three audiences
Named email logins for the team, funders, reviewers and hosts. Internal figures stay with the team, reviewers read and download, and the public page shows results only.
Part of the trial architecture in Namindo's ARENA Launchpad application. webdoli is the planned data chain of the trial: independent logging at each site, the channel register with calibrations, the one-minute Comparator of model against measured, and separate views for the trial team, ARENA's reviewers, the hosts and the public.
In the application, Namindo plans to provide webdoli's services to the trial in kind. The application is under assessment and has not yet been awarded. The same services are offered to other R&D and public trials now.
Why a proper trial
Much of what is published is modelled, or measured without a baseline
New energy products are often sold on modelled gains, or on field results taken without a control, without a baseline, or without counting what the change does to the rest of the plant. Published estimates of the bifacial gain alone range from about 4 to 17 per cent.
A trial that will convince a funder, a lender or a buyer needs controls and guard rows, a bare baseline to measure the offsets between rows, the leak between rows measured on site, calibrated sensors, and a record nobody can quietly change. That is what this service is built to give.
Data to the funder's specification. Funded projects usually agree a knowledge sharing plan and a data specification with the funder. webdoli keeps the one-minute record and delivers the series, the metadata and the reports in the form the plan sets, for the funder's own reporting and for the public dataset.
Complements the test laboratories. Independent laboratories test and certify modules and products. A webdoli trial measures what a product does in a working plant, on the host's ground, through the seasons, and keeps that record for everyone who has to rely on it.
Who sees what
Set once, kept for the life of the trial
| Item | Trial team | Reviewers and funders | Public page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live one-minute series and derived results | Yes | Yes | Daily, weekly and monthly averages |
| Downloads, CSV and OpenOffice | Yes | Yes | No |
| Model against measured, with the interval | Yes | Yes | Headline result |
| Channel register and calibration certificates | Yes | Yes | No |
| Host names and locations | Yes | Yes | Only with each host's consent |
| Internal model figures, materials and designs | Yes | No | No |
| Logging new readings and photos | Field staff | No | No |
The split is agreed with you and the funder at the start. Your intellectual property stays yours: what is not to be shown is never put on a page anyone outside the team can open.
How a trial runs
Five stages
- DesignSites, rows, controls and repeats set out with Namindo engineers, with the model of each site run first.
- Install and registerSensors and loggers fitted, every channel entered with its calibration certificate, keys issued per logger.
- BaselineEvery row runs untreated for three to four weeks, to measure the fixed offsets between them.
- TrialTreatments go in one at a time. Data flows hourly; the comparison with the model updates as it arrives.
- Report and publishResults with their intervals, the closing calibrations, and the dataset for the funder's knowledge sharing.
In-house example, proposed
Namindo's ARENA field trial
Managed reflection for bifacial solar at two research sites, with two demonstration units. Four sites, A to D, to be logged on webdoli, with the model set against the measured data in the reviewer area. It is Namindo's own proposed trial, shown as a worked example of the service. The application is under assessment and has not yet been awarded; the site models and the platform are in place now.
Public
Managed Reflection Gains
The modelled gain at each site, untreated against treated, with measured averages to be drawn over it once the trial runs.
Open the results pagePublic
How the trial will be logged
What is measured, how it reaches webdoli, how the record is kept honest, and who can see it.
Field data loggingRestricted
Reviewer area
The full series, the hourly model, model against measured, the channel register and downloads, for named reviewers and partners.
Reviewer loginWho it is for
Research, pilots and funded trials
Universities and research organisations, grant-funded pilots, technology developers proving a product in the field, and hosts who want to see the data from their own site.
Beyond solar
Any trial that is measured
The platform is not tied to solar. Cooling, biogas, hydrogen, water and building trials run on the same record, with the same models against measured. See the Comparator.
Planning a trial or a grant application?
Tell us what you want to prove, where, and who has to be convinced. We can help with the trial design and the data plan for the application, then run the data for the life of the trial. Email info@webdoli.com or call +61 426 087 878.