Create Wind and Solar Resource Files

A repository for generating wind and solar capacity factor files for use in energy system models.

Installation and setup

We recommend using the conda package manager to install the required packages. If you do not have conda installed, you can download it here.

1. Clone the repository to your local machine. git clone https://github.com/carnegie/Create_Wind_and_Solar_Resource_Files.git

2. cd into the repository. cd Create_Wind_and_Solar_Resource_Files

3. Create a conda environment with the required packages and activate it:

conda env create -f env.yaml

conda activate capacity_factors_env

Converting climate variables into capacity factors

First, climate inputs (radiation, wind speed, temperature, etc) are converted to capacity factors at grid cell level with scripts in the get_gridded_CF directory (see README.md in that directory for more information).

For the technical details of the calculations please see Methodology.md.

Generating capacity factor input files for specific regions

Next, the capacity factor files are aggregated to the regions of interest with scripts in the examples_ERA5 directory for ERA5 based capacity factors (see README.md in that directory for more information).

Similarly, region specific capacity factors based on MERRA-2 can be obtained by carrying out analogous steps in the examples_MERRA2 directory.