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distance not being returned in the station_info section #315

Closed SunnySanDiego closed 1 year ago

SunnySanDiego commented 1 year ago

We have been calling the PVWATTS API for many years and one field we've used is the distance field in the station_info section. Since upgrading the v8, this information is no longer being provided (although some customers report seeing it provided intermittently).

If I make a call to https://developer.nrel.gov/api/pvwatts/v8.json?api_key=...&system_capacity=1&module_type=0&losses=14&array_type=1&tilt=34&azimuth=180&lat=32.845910&lon=-117.275200&timeframe=hourly&dc_ac_ratio=1.2&gcr=0.4&radius=100&dataset=nsrdb&inv_eff=96, for example, the returned station_info object is as follows:

"station_info": {
   "lat": 32.84999847412109,
   "lon": -117.2600021362305,
   "elev": 0,
   "tz": -8,
   "location": "72869",
   "city": "",
   "state": "None",
   "solar_resource_file": "72869.csv",
   "weather_data_source": "NSRDB PSM V3 GOES tmy-2020 3.2.0"
}

But if I make the same call, but to the v6 endpoint, I get back the following:

    "station_info": {
        "lat": 32.84999847412109,
        "lon": -117.2600021362305,
        "elev": 0.0,
        "tz": -8.0,
        "location": "None",
        "city": "",
        "state": "None",
        "solar_resource_file": "W11726N3285.csv",
        "distance": 1485
    }

There is a distance property here. I notice the v8 version does have a value for location, so maybe that's the issue?

Regardless, the v8 API documentation does say that the distance property is included as part of the Station Info Fields, but as you can see here, it is missing. And I've verified this problem exists for a number of other lat/lon locations within the US, namely that the v8 version does not return distance but the v6 version does.

Thanks

SunnySanDiego commented 1 year ago

I also reported this issue via the contact page from the PVWATTS API website.

It was identified as a bug and has been fixed. The production endpoint has been updated, as https://developer.nrel.gov/api/pvwatts/v8.json?api_key=...&system_capacity=1&module_type=0&losses=14&array_type=1&tilt=34&azimuth=180&lat=32.845910&lon=-117.275200&timeframe=hourly&dc_ac_ratio=1.2&gcr=0.4&radius=100&dataset=nsrdb&inv_eff=96 now returns distance:

    "station_info": {
        "lat": 32.84999847412109,
        "lon": -117.2600021362305,
        "elev": 0.0,
        "tz": -8.0,
        "location": "72869",
        "city": "",
        "state": "None",
        "solar_resource_file": "72869.csv",
        "distance": 1485,
        "weather_data_source": "NSRDB PSM V3 GOES tmy-2020 3.2.0"
    }