Solar Shading Analysis Software Poland: 2026 Guide

Polish solar shading analysis is a pricing problem more than a geometry problem. Since net billing replaced net metering in April 2022, exported kilowatt-hours are settled at the market reference rate rather than banked one for one, and that rate sits far below what a prosumer pays to import. In May 2026 the RCEm settlement rate was 191.37 PLN per MWh, roughly 0.19 PLN per kWh, against retail import several times higher. So two obstructions that produce identical annual shading percentages can differ by a factor of four or five in what they cost, depending entirely on which hours their shadows fall. This guide covers what shading analysis has to do differently in Poland, and which tools do it.

Short version. Solar shading analysis software for Polish projects has to run 8,760 hourly steps at module level and then price each lost kilowatt-hour against the correct side of the net billing spread. An annual shading percentage is not an answer in Poland, because the same percentage can represent very different amounts of money.

The general methodology is covered in our solar shading analysis software guide, and the underlying simulation approach in our PV yield simulation software guide. This page covers what changes under Polish net billing. For the wider platform comparison see best solar design software Poland.

Net Billing Turns Shading Into An Hourly Question

Under the old net metering rules the grid acted as a bank. A kilowatt-hour exported at noon came back at a fixed discount later, so the hour it was generated barely mattered and a total annual shading figure was a reasonable proxy for cost.

Net billing removed that. Exports now settle at RCEm and imports are bought at retail. The gap between those two numbers is the whole design problem.

The third row is the one most tools miss entirely. On a system with storage, midday shading does not simply reduce cheap exports. It reduces the charge available for the evening peak, which converts a low-value loss into a high-value one. Any tool that does not simulate the battery alongside the shading will price this wrongly.

RCEm Volatility And What To Tell A Customer

RCEm is not a stable number. April 2026 settled at 132.92 PLN per MWh, the lowest since the mechanism began, and May 2026 came in at 191.37. A 44 percent month-on-month swing in the value of exported energy is not a rounding error.

For shading analysis this has a specific consequence. Any mitigation recommendation justified purely on recovered export revenue is standing on a moving floor. If trimming a tree pays back over eight years at 0.19 PLN per kWh, it does not pay back at 0.13.

The defensible approach is to run the shading economics at two or three RCEm assumptions and present the range. It also pushes the recommendation in a consistent direction: mitigation justified by recovered self-consumption is robust, because retail import prices are far more stable than the export reference. Where you can make the case on self-consumption, make it there.

Self-Consumption Is The Lever

A Polish household without storage typically self-consumes in the region of 30 to 40 percent of generation. Add a battery in the 10 kWh class and that rises to roughly 70 to 80 percent. Mój Prąd has been weighted to encourage exactly this, with support for photovoltaics alone well below what is available when storage, a heat pump and energy management are combined.

That reshapes the shading conversation. At 35 percent self-consumption, most of what a midday shadow destroys was going to be sold at RCEm. At 75 percent, most of it was going to displace retail import. The same roof, the same tree, and a materially different answer on whether to cut the tree down.

The practical consequence is ordering. Model the storage decision and the shading mitigation together, not in sequence, because each changes the answer to the other. A tool that handles shading in one module and storage sizing in another, with no shared hourly timeline, cannot do this.

Latitude: Severe Geometry, Small Energy

Poland runs from roughly 49 degrees north at the southern border to about 55 in the north. Midwinter solar noon altitude is low and shadows are correspondingly long.

The temptation is to design around the bottom of that table. Resist it. December and January carry a small share of Polish annual generation, so a 25 percent December shading loss is a large percentage of a small number. Report it monthly so nobody is surprised by a flat winter bill, but do not spend money mitigating it.

Where the winter geometry does deserve real attention is ground-mount and flat-roof inter-row spacing, because there the shadow is cast by your own array and the spacing decision is permanent. Simulate several spacings across all 8,760 hours and price the output at both sides of the net billing spread. Accepting some winter inter-row shading is very often correct.

Worked Example: The Same Shadow On Two Polish Houses

An illustrative calculation showing why the annual percentage is not the answer, not a specific customer project. Both houses have a 6 kW array, roughly 6,000 kWh annual generation, and an identical 7% annual shading loss of about 420 kWh. RCEm assumed at 0.19 PLN per kWh.

Same roof, same tree, same shading report, opposite recommendations. The number that decided it never appeared in the shading analysis at all, which is precisely the argument for doing shading inside a tool that also carries the load profile and the tariff.

Who Should Choose What

• Choose SurgePV if you want 8,760-hour module-level shading priced against net billing, with storage and load on the same timeline.
• Choose PVsyst for larger commercial and utility projects, and wherever a lender names it.
• Choose HelioScope for commercial rooftop engineering where the customer-facing document is produced elsewhere.
• Avoid annual-percentage shading reports. Under net billing they do not convert into money, and money is the decision.

The Bottom Line

In Poland the shadow’s timing matters more than its size.

• Split the loss by destination. Exported kilowatt-hours settle near 0.19 PLN, self-consumed ones displace retail, and mitigation only pays on the second kind.
• Test against an RCEm range. A recommendation built on one month’s reference price is built on sand.
• Decide shading and storage together. Raising self-consumption changes what a shadow costs, so the two calculations are one calculation.