Assessingsolar: An Interactive Guide to Solar Resource Assessment in Python
Abstract
The rapid decrease in the cost of solar energy in the past decade has led to large investments and increased penetration of solar energy into power systems worldwide. This has in turn led to an increased need for accurate and reliable solar resource data. Fortunately, there has been a great effort in advancing the state-of-the-art in solar resource assessment, including more accurate solar radiation models and solar resource datasets. While research advances are published in great detail in scientific journals, the complexity and time required to implement these new methods often make them inaccessible to non-expert users. To this end, AssessingSolar is a compilation of best practices and recommended methodologies for solar resource assessment and solar data processing, presented as an interactive guide using Jupyter Notebook and Python code. The open-sourced dissemination and explanation of the methods and code examples enables users to easily modify the examples to fit their own applications.