CLOVER documentation and user manual¶
Overview¶
CLOVER - Continuous Lifetime Optimisation of Variable Electricity Resources - is a free, open-source tool for modelling, simulating, optimising and analysing the performance and impacts of electricity systems. Originally designed for off-grid solar and battery minigrids for rural electrification in developing countries, CLOVER now includes the functionality to use solar, battery storage, diesel generation and the national grid to supply power to community-scale electricity systems.
Its use cases have expanded from simple feasibility studies to analysis of the long-term impacts and benefits of sustainable rural electrification, as well as improving the performance and design of real-life systems currently deployed in the field.
CLOVER is designed to be accessible and work on “ordinary” computers and laptops and, while the processing speeds will vary, the results will be the same: it has been run on machines varying in capacities from a Raspberry Pi to a supercomputer cluster. CLOVER is, and always will be, free to use under an MIT License.
About this guide¶
This guide aims to provide an introduction to the operation and functionality of CLOVER, as well as an insight into the kinds of investigations it can be used for. We have aimed to make it as accessible as possible to new users, who are assumed to have a basic knowledge of programming (limited experience with some language, not necessarily Python) and a good knowledge of their chosen situation (moderate or higher experience with the energy access issues and goals relevant to their context). More advanced users are, of course, very welcome to dive deeper into CLOVER’s functionality and edit the code to suit their needs.
Each section walks the user through the modules which make up CLOVER, their core functions, and how they fit together in the entire system. Each module can be operated independently but we recommend following the order presented in this guide, as some modules depend on others to function. The sections also present options for outputs and visualisation of the results.
For coherence with the documentation we recommend that novice users use Spyder (available by downloading Anaconda) and Python 3.6, which will make this guide easier to follow and has the requisite packages installed already. This may also help with the troubleshooting sections throughout this guide.
This guide focuses on the key inputs and outputs of each CLOVER module with the goal of getting usable, actionable results. For details on the inner workings of the code, and the exact nature of the functions that it relies on, please refer to the comments and documentation in the code itself.
For a single PDF document containing all of the information in this guide, either use the download function (bottom left of the site) or download the user manual available here. This site will be continuously updated and should serve as the main reference, whilst the user manual will be updated after significant updates to CLOVER.
CLOVER is undergoing some big changes to increase its usability. Check back soon for more updates!