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Site file (.SIT) creation

The instruction create-site will generate a site file (.SIT) from geographic coordinates and monthly weather data. The resulting file describes the location and climate context of a PV system, and can be used directly as input for the run-simulation command.

The PVsystCLI site creation is fully equivalent to creating a site from the PVsyst interface.

Preparing required inputs

Monthly weather data file

The only file input required by create-site is a CSV file containing monthly averaged weather data. This file must follow the format described in the command reference.

Monthly weather data can be obtained from several sources:

  • Any weather data provider: export monthly averages directly from any weather data provider
  • On-site measurements: compute monthly averages from measured irradiation and temperature data

At minimum, the file must contain the GlobH (global horizontal irradiation) and Temp (temperature) columns. Other columns such as DiffH, WindVel, Linke and RelHum are optional but improve simulation accuracy when available.

Geographic coordinates

Latitude and longitude must be provided in decimal format. Altitude and timezone are optional: if omitted, they are retrieved automatically from web services based on the coordinates. An internet connection is therefore required if these parameters are not provided explicitly.

Use cases

Example 1: Creating a site from monthly weather data

The basic use case is generating a single .SIT file for a known location, providing all parameters explicitly to avoid any dependency on web services. This is the recommended approach in automated or offline environments.

PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Geneva" --latitude:46.2044 --longitude:6.1432 --altitude:375 --timezone:1 --country-code:CH --region:europe --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Geneva.SIT"

When altitude, timezone and country are omitted, they are retrieved automatically from web services, which simplifies the command for a quick first run:

PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Geneva" --latitude:46.2044 --longitude:6.1432 --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Geneva.SIT"

Ready-made related examples :

  • ScriptsBat\05_Demo_PVsystCLI_CreateSite.bat
  • ScriptsPython\05_Demo_PVsystCLI_CreateSite.py
  • Sources\WeatherData\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv

Example 2: Batch site creation from a list of locations

A common need in large-scale projects is generating site files for many locations at once, for example when assessing PV potential across a region, or when managing a portfolio of plants at different geographic positions.

In this scenario, a script iterates over a list of locations (typically stored in a CSV file containing site names, coordinates and paths to weather data files) and calls create-site once per location. The resulting .SIT files can then be passed to run-simulation for each corresponding project.

A typical input list may look like:

SiteName;Latitude;Longitude;Altitude;Timezone;WeatherFile
Geneva;46.2044;6.1432;375;1;C:\Data\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv
Zurich;47.3769;8.5417;408;1;C:\Data\Zurich_Monthly_Weather.csv
Bern;46.9480;7.4474;540;1;C:\Data\Bern_Monthly_Weather.csv

The script then calls create-site for each row:

PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Geneva" --latitude:46.2044 --longitude:6.1432 --altitude:375 --timezone:1 --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Geneva.SIT"
PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Zurich" --latitude:47.3769 --longitude:8.5417 --altitude:408 --timezone:1 --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Zurich_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Zurich.SIT"
PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Bern" --latitude:46.9480 --longitude:7.4474 --altitude:540 --timezone:1 --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Bern_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Bern.SIT"

Tip

Use --cmd-options-file to keep each call concise when the number of options grows, storing the parameters for each site in a separate options file.

Ready-made related examples :

  • ScriptsBat\06_Demo_PVsystCLI_BatchCreateSite.bat
  • ScriptsPython\06_Demo_PVsystCLI_BatchCreateSite.py
  • Sources\Sites\SiteList.csv
  • Sources\WeatherData\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv
  • Sources\WeatherData\Bern_Monthly_Weather.csv
  • Sources\WeatherData\Zurich_Monthly_Weather.csv

Example 3: Full pipeline: site creation and simulation

create-site and run-simulation can be chained to build a fully automated pipeline, from raw weather data to simulation results, without any manual intervention in the PVsyst interface.

A typical pipeline looks like this:

  1. Prepare the monthly weather data CSV file for the target location
  2. Run create-site to generate the .SIT file
  3. Pass the resulting .SIT file to run-simulation via the --site option
PVsystCLI.exe create-site --site-name:"Geneva" --latitude:46.2044 --longitude:6.1432 --altitude:375 --timezone:1 --country-code:CH --weather-data-file:"C:\Data\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv" --output-sit-file:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Geneva.SIT"

PVsystCLI.exe run-simulation --workspace:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data" --project:"Geneva" --variant:"VC0" --site:"C:\PVsyst8.0_Data\Sites\Geneva.SIT" --report-pdf-file:"C:\Reports\Geneva_Report.pdf"

This approach is particularly useful when:

  • Running simulations for locations where no .SIT file exists yet in the workspace
  • Assessing the same PV system design across multiple locations (see Example 2)
  • Integrating PVsyst simulations into a larger data processing pipeline driven by external weather data

Ready-made related examples :

  • ScriptsBat\07_Demo_PVsystCLI_CreateSiteAndSimulate.bat
  • ScriptsPython\07_Demo_PVsystCLI_CreateSiteAndSimulate.py
  • Sources\WeatherData\Geneva_Monthly_Weather.csv

Output

SIT file

The output of create-site is a .SIT file containing all geographic and climate metadata for the site: name, coordinates, altitude, timezone, country, region, albedo, and monthly weather data arrays. This file follows the standard PVsyst site format and is fully compatible with the PVsyst interface: it can be opened and edited in PVsyst if needed.

If no output path is provided, the file is saved as <site-name>.SIT in the Sites folder of the user's PVsyst workspace.