Hybrid PV-wind systems improve land use efficiency but introduce shading interactions, with wind turbines potentially reducing PV output. The PVMD Toolbox is an energy yield simulation tool that accounts for a PV module’s position, mounting, and surroundings, enabling detailed sh
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Hybrid PV-wind systems improve land use efficiency but introduce shading interactions, with wind turbines potentially reducing PV output. The PVMD Toolbox is an energy yield simulation tool that accounts for a PV module’s position, mounting, and surroundings, enabling detailed shading analysis. However, high accuracy in modeling how the module perceives its environment comes at significant computational cost. A selective skydome refinement method was developed and implemented in the PVMD Toolbox to perform accurate and efficient shading analysis for PV modules in complex environments. The method begins with a coarse-resolution skydome simulation to identify shaded regions, which are then selectively refined, along with a surrounding buffer. Sensitivity values are recalculated only for the refined areas using targeted ray tracing, while the rest retain values from the initial simulation. This approach reduces ray tracing operations by over 70% and total simulation time by approximately 90%, with a relative DC energy yield error of less than 1%. The method was validated across different initial resolutions, demonstrating a consistent trade-off between computational efficiency and accuracy. In large-scale PV-wind layouts, it captured spatial shading effects reliably and highlighted the importance of fine-resolution input data.