Welcome to SolarUtils’s documentation!

Version 0.3 (Carpenters)

https://travis-ci.org/SunPower/SolarUtils.svg?branch=master

SolarUtils is set of Python wrappers around the publicly available NREL SOLPOS and SPECTRL2 C-language computer programs that calculate solar position and spectral decomposition. Please read the NREL disclaimer and license. Usage of this software implies acceptance of the terms.

Installation

Use pip to install SolarUtils from the PyPI:

pip install SolarUtils

You can also download a source distribution from PyPI or clone the repository and use Python distutils:

python setup.py install

Requirements

SolarUtils has no requirements for usage however for installation, testing and to build the documentaiton you will need the following pacakges:

  • NumPy

  • PyTest

  • Sphinx

Usage

See SOLPOS Documentation and SPECTRL2 Documentation for more detail.

Examples

>>> from solar_utils import *
>>> import pandas as pd
>>> location = [35.56836, -119.2022, -8.0]
>>> datetime = [2013, 6, 5, 12, 31, 0]
>>> weather = [1015.62055, 40.0]
>>> (angles, airmass) = solposAM(location, datetime, weather)
>>> zenith, azimuth = angles
>>> zenith
15.074043273925781
>>> azimuth
213.29042053222656]
>>> am, amp = airmass
>>> am
1.0352272987365723
>>> amp
1.0379053354263306]

>>> units = 1
>>> location = [33.65, -84.43, -5.0]
>>> datetime = [1999, 7, 22, 9, 45, 37]
>>> weather = [1006.0, 27.0]
>>> orientation = [33.65, 135.0]
>>> atmospheric_conditions = [1.14, 0.65, -1.0, 0.2, 1.36]
>>> albedo = [0.3, 0.7, 0.8, 1.3, 2.5, 4.0] + ([0.2] * 6)
>>> specdif, specdir, specetr, specglo, specx = spectrl2(
...     units, location, datetime, weather, orientation,
...     atmospheric_conditions, albedo
... )
>>> spec = pd.DataFrame(
...     {'DIF': specdif, 'DIR': specdir, 'ETR': specetr, 'GLO': specglo},
...     index=specx
... )
>>> f = spec.plot()
>>> f.set_title('Solar Spectrum Example')
>>> f.set_xlabel('Wavelength, $\lambda [\mu m]$')
>>> f.set_ylabel('Spectral Irradiance, $I_{\lambda} [W/m^2/\mu m]$')
>>> f.grid(True)
>>> f.figure.show()
_images/example.png

Changes

For more recent changes, please see GitHub Releases.

v0.2.1 - Bartenders (2016-07-11)

  • add documentation

  • add BSD 3-clause license

  • add NREL license and disclaimers

  • fix #5 - Wheel made after build_ext doesn’t contain libs

v0.2 - Bakers (2016-02-23)

  • one source for all platforms

v0.1.4 - Artists (2016-02-22)

  • fixes @rpath issue with darwin

v0.1.3 - Actuaries (2016-02-19)

  • compatibility with Python-3

v0.1.2 - Animal Trainers (2016-02-12)

  • fix package names not platform specific

  • change linux to linux2 everywhere

v0.1.1 - Actors (2016-02-12)

  • Linux x86-64 wheel with binaries in addition to MS Windows x86-64 wheel

  • fixed some namespace clashes

  • changed solar_utils.py to core.py

  • changed solar_utils_exceptions.py to exceptions.py

  • conformed to variable naming conventions, removed camelcase, use underscores

  • change use of builtin keyword code as variable to err_code

Indices and tables