cbase.fi

What It Is

CBase is a website and service that connects weather and climate data with real-world solar energy applications. Its core focus is photovoltaic power generation forecasts, annual PV production estimates, and solar thermal energy production forecasts. The site indicates that its maintainer, Herman Böök, has experience in solar energy research, a PhD background in PV output modeling, and expertise in meteorology, so the product feels more like a specialized domain tool than a general-purpose developer platform.

Core Features and Developer Capabilities

The most important publicly available feature is a real-time NWP-based photovoltaic production output forecast API, which can provide PV output forecasts for any site in Fennoscandia or the Baltics. A personal API key can be obtained upon request. There is also a solar thermal energy production forecast API. The annual PV production estimation tool supports almost any location worldwide. Users can enter parameters such as latitude and longitude, number of solar panels, rated power per panel, inverter capacity, tilt angle, azimuth, system losses, and mounting type. It also supports options including fixed angle, single-axis or dual-axis tracking, and angle optimization. Available data sources include PVGIS-SARAH2, PVGIS-SARAH, PVGIS-ERA5, and PVGIS-NSRDB.

Pricing and Openness

The site does not disclose formal pricing, free quotas, request limits, or commercial licensing terms. It only states that personal API keys can be provided upon request, and offers PayPal and MobilePay donation options to support site maintenance. No open-source repository, self-hosted deployment option, SDK, SLA, or enterprise contract information was found, so procurement and long-term integration should be confirmed directly with the maintainer in advance.

Pros and Cons

The advantages are its highly focused direction, making it suitable for PV forecasting, project feasibility studies, and energy application prototypes. The online form includes a fairly complete set of parameters, which helps users understand the model inputs, and the author’s background adds professional credibility. The drawbacks are also clear: developer documentation is limited, with no API endpoints, authentication details, response schemas, error codes, rate limits, or versioning information provided. The real-time API’s geographic coverage is mainly limited to the Nordic and Baltic regions. The service also appears to be personally maintained, so support capacity and stability are uncertain.

Who It’s For and Access from China

CBase is suitable for PV researchers, developers of energy management systems, and early-stage validation users building weather-driven power generation forecasting applications. If you need a global commercial-grade API, it may be worth comparing it with PVGIS, NREL PVWatts, Solcast, Open-Meteo Solar, or Meteomatics. The original content does not provide information about access from China, so network connectivity, payment availability, and API reachability all need to be tested. PayPal donations may also vary in convenience for users in China.