Getting started

Introduction

The windpowerlib is a library that provides a set of functions and classes to calculate the power output of wind turbines. It was originally part of the feedinlib (windpower and photovoltaic) but was taken out to build up a community concentrating on wind power models.

For a quick start see the Examples and basic usage section.

Documentation

Full documentation can be found at readthedocs.

Use the project site of readthedocs to choose the version of the documentation. Go to the download page to download different versions and formats (pdf, html, epub) of the documentation.

Installation

If you have a working Python 3 environment, use pypi to install the latest windpowerlib version:

pip install windpowerlib

The windpowerlib is designed for Python 3 and tested on Python >= 3.5. We highly recommend to use virtual environments. Please see the installation page of the oemof documentation for complete instructions on how to install python and a virtual environment on your operating system.

Optional Packages

To see the plots of the windpowerlib example in the Examples and basic usage section you should install the matplotlib package. Matplotlib can be installed using pip:

pip install matplotlib

Examples and basic usage

The basic usage of the windpowerlib is shown in the ModelChain example that is available as jupyter notebook and python script:

To run the example you need the example weather and turbine data used:

Furthermore, you have to install the windpowerlib and to run the notebook you also need to install notebook using pip3. To launch jupyter notebook type jupyter notebook in the terminal. This will open a browser window. Navigate to the directory containing the notebook to open it. See the jupyter notebook quick start guide for more information on how to install and how to run jupyter notebooks.

Further functionalities, like the modelling of wind farms and wind turbine clusters, are shown in the TurbineClusterModelChain example. As the ModelChain example it is available as jupyter notebook and as python script. The weather and turbine data in this example is the same as in the example above.

You can also look at the examples in the Examples section.

Wind turbine data

The windpowerlib provides wind turbine data (power curves, hub heights, etc.) for a large set of wind turbines. See Initialize wind turbine in Examples on how to use this data in your simulations.

The dataset is hosted and maintained on the OpenEnergy database (oedb). To update your local files with the latest version of the oedb turbine library you can execute the following in your python console:

from windpowerlib.wind_turbine import load_turbine_data_from_oedb
load_turbine_data_from_oedb()

We would like to encourage anyone to contribute to the turbine library by adding turbine data or reporting errors in the data. See here for more information on how to contribute.

Contributing

We are warmly welcoming all who want to contribute to the windpowerlib. If you are interested in wind models and want to help improving the existing model do not hesitate to contact us via github or email (windpowerlib@rl-institut.de).

Clone: https://github.com/wind-python/windpowerlib and install the cloned repository using pip:

pip install -e /path/to/the/repository

As the windpowerlib started with contributors from the oemof developer group we use the same developer rules.

How to create a pull request:

  • Fork the windpowerlib repository to your own github account.
  • Change, add or remove code.
  • Commit your changes.
  • Create a pull request and describe what you will do and why.
  • Wait for approval.

Generally the following steps are required when changing, adding or removing code:

  • Add new tests if you have written new functions/classes.
  • Add/change the documentation (new feature, API changes …).
  • Add a whatsnew entry and your name to Contributors.
  • Check if all tests still work by simply executing pytest in your windpowerlib directory:
pytest

Citing the windpowerlib

We use the zenodo project to get a DOI for each version. Search zenodo for the right citation of your windpowerlib version.

License

Copyright (C) 2017 oemof developer group

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.