Critical 1-axis tracking update

A geometry error was resulting in over-estimation of rear irradiance for single-axis tracked systems. Version 0.2.0 has fixed the problem.

Update calculations for southern latitudes

A minor change is made to allow orientation azimuths in all directions from 0 to 360 degrees. This will help with modeling southern latitude systems.

bifacial_radiance 0.1.0

Update to 1-axis tracking and validation

There was an important update to how 1-axis tracking .csv weather files are saved and passed to gencumulativesky.

Now we have favorable front irradiance comparison with PVSyst, SAM and bifacialvf

Favorable rear irradiance comparison with bifacialvf

1-axis tracking examples

See /docs/1Axis_tracking_example.ipynb for usage examples.
See /docs/1Axis_Radiance_VF_comparison.py for a comparison with our partner project - BifacialVF (view factor model)

RadianceObj.set1axis(metdata, axis_azimuth, limit_angle, angledelta, backtrack, gcr): import weather file and parse into sub-files based on the tracker angle during those times. Return: trackerdict (dictionary with relevant tracker-specific data)
RadianceObj.genCumSky1axis(trackerdict) : Generate cumulative sky data for each tracker angle
RadianceObj.makeScene1axis(trackerdict, moduletype, sceneDict, nMods, nRows ) : Generate .rad file geometries for each tracker angle
RadianceObj.makeOct1axis(trackerdict) : Generate octfiles incorporating all of the above for each tracker angle

PREREQUISITES (Step 0):

This software requires the previous installation of RADIANCE .

Make sure you add radiance to the system PATH so Python can interact with the radiance program

If you are on a PC you should also copy the Jaloxa radwinexe-5.0.a.8-win64.zip executables into program files/radiance/bin:

STEP 1: Install and import bifacial_radiance

• clone the bifacial_radiance repo to your local directory or download and unzip the .zip file
• navigate to the \bifacial_radiance directory using anaconda command line
• run pip install -e . ( the period . is required, the -e flag is optional and installs in development mode where changes to the bifacial_radiance.py files are immediately incorporated into the module if you re-start the python kernel)

STEP 2: Move gencumulativesky.exe

Copy gencumulativesky.exe from the repo's /bifacial_radiance/data/ directory and copy into your Radiance install directory.
This is typically found in /program files/radiance/bin/.

STEP 3: Create a local Radiance directory for storing the scene files created

Keep scene geometry files separate from the bifacial_radiance directory. Create a local directory somewhere to be used for storing scene files.

STEP 4: Reboot the computer

This makes sure the PATH is updated

bifacial_radiance 0.0.5

New functionality: Single-axis tracking capability

See /docs/1Axis_tracking_example.ipynb for usage examples.
See /docs/1Axis_Radiance_VF_comparison.py for a comparison with our partner project - BifacialVF (view factor model)

RadianceObj.set1axis(metdata, axis_azimuth, limit_angle, angledelta, backtrack, gcr): import weather file and parse into sub-files based on the tracker angle during those times. Return: trackerdict (dictionary with relevant tracker-specific data)
RadianceObj.genCumSky1axis(trackerdict) : Generate cumulative sky data for each tracker angle
RadianceObj.makeScene1axis(trackerdict, moduletype, sceneDict, nMods, nRows ) : Generate .rad file geometries for each tracker angle
RadianceObj.makeOct1axis(trackerdict) : Generate octfiles incorporating all of the above for each tracker angle

bifacial_radiance 0.0.4

New functionality: Custom module configuration

RadianceObj.makeModule(name, x, y, bifi): add a new module to the configuration file, named name
RadianceObj.printModules() : list the available module names in the configuration file data\module.json
SceneObj.readModule(name) : list configuration details for module type name

Install using pip

1. Clone or download the bifacial_radiance repository.
2. Navigate to repository: cd bifacial_radiance
3. Install via pip: "pip install . "
4. Alternate installation development mode: " pip install -e . "

0.0.3 Stable release

This is a minor update enabling arbitrary sized systems in the RadianceObj.makeScene() function
-Arbitrary Nmods x Nrows system configuration

Install using pip

1. Clone or download the bifacial_radiance repository.
2. Navigate to repository: cd bifacial_radiance
3. Install via pip: "pip install . "
4. Alternate installation development mode: " pip install -e . "