Facilitating Digital Analysis and Exploration in Solar Energy Science and Technology through Free Computer Applications

Abstract

A number of free computer applications exist for designing solar power systems and predicting their performance. Among the various tools, three reputable ones were used while assessing different solar energy technologies; these were either the concentrated solar power (CSP) type or the photovoltaic (PV) type. Various types of digital data, including computer modeling files, tabulated values, and illustrative views for simulations conducted by the desktop software program Energy3D (by the Concord Consortium) for analyzing solar systems are described and made publicly accessible by the author. Thus, the interested reader can reproduce or customize simulations. The modeled solar power systems include solar farms with a fixed or moving array of panels, linear Fresnel reflectors, parabolic troughs, parabolic dishes, and solar towers. Supporting benchmarking data are also included, which are prediction reports for three PV systems using the cloud-based application PVGIS (Photovoltaic Geographical Information System), developed by the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC). These PV systems are related to three systems modeled via Energy3D, and thus help in validation. Another set of benchmarking data comes from another cloud-based application for PV systems, which is PVWatts, provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the United States Department of Energy (DoE). This paper describes data used in the analysis as guiding examples, giving an opportunity for gaining knowledge and skills in the research areas of solar energy science and technology. It also briefly discusses a fourth free solar energy tool, ‘Aladdin’ (by the Institute for Future Intelligence), which possesses artificial intelligence capabilities. The data consist of a total of 59 digital files, divided into in 7 computer folders. Each folder contains a number of binary and/or text files, ranging from 2 to 18.