IntroductionΒΆ

Open source software is code that is publicly available and free to use according to the terms of a license [1]. Black Duck Software estimates that 65% of companies used open source software in 2016 [2]. The open source PV modeling community continues grow, as well. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the benefits and challenges of open source software in the solar industry. The purpose of this website is to:

  1. Promote the use of open source software in the PV modeling community,
  2. Summarize the state of open source for PV modeling, and
  3. Stimulate discussion of how to support open source PV modeling projects in the future.

Open source software can be beneficial for a number of reasons. It encourages reproducibility and replicability in scientific studies [3]. Open source analyses complement scientific publications by encouraging transparency and collaboration, e.g. [4, 5]. According to GitHub, open source software promotes collaboration, adoption, and transparency [6]. Google states that open source is good engineering economics in its open source guide [7]. In the PV industry, open source software may reduce project financing soft costs because algorithms and implementations are transparent and have been vetted by users, so they are inherently less risky. Open source software also has a number challenges [8]. These challenges include funding, community, version control, programming expertise, quantifying impact, and professional credit. We will discuss these challenges in the context of PV modeling.