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pvcompare

Introduction

pvcompare is a model that compares the benefits of different PV technologies in a specified energy system by running an energy system optimization. This model concentrates on the integration of PV technologies into local energy systems but could easily be enhanced to analyse other conversion technologies.

The functionalities include

• calculation of an area potential for PV on rooftops and façades based on building parameters,

• calculation of heat and electricity demand time series for a specific amount of people living in these buildings,

• calculation of PV feed-in time series for a set of PV installations on rooftops and façades incl. different technologies,

  • all technologies in the database of pvlib,
  • a specific concentrator-PV module (CPV) and
  • a module of perovskite-silicon cells (PeroSI),

• calculation of temperature dependent COPs or respectively EERs for heat pumps and chillers,

• download and formatting of ERA5 weather data (global reanalysis data set),

• preparation of data and input files for the energy system optimization,

• a sensitivity analysis for input parameters and

• visualisations for the comparison of different technologies.

The model is being developed within the scope of the H2020 project GRECO. The energy system optimization is based on the oemof-solph python package, which pvcompare calls via the Multi-Vector Simulator (MVS), a tool for assessing and optimizing Local Energy Systems (LES).

Documentation

The full documentation can be found at readthedocs.

Installation

To install pvcompare follow these steps:

• Clone pvcompare and navigate to the directory \pvcompare containing the setup.py:

git clone git@github.com:greco-project/pvcompare.git
cd pvcompare

• Install the package:

pip install -e .

• For the optimization you need to install a solver. You can download the open source cbc-solver from https://ampl.com/dl/open/cbc/ . Please follow the installation steps in the oemof installation instructions. You also find information about other solvers there.

Examples and basic usage

The basic usage of pvcompare is explained in the documentation in section Basic usage of pvcompare. Examples are provided on github in the directory examples/.

Contributing

We are warmly welcoming all who want to contribute to pvcompare. Please read our Contributing Guidelines. You can also get in contact by writing an issue on github.