Using open software to teach resource assessment of renewable energies

Abstract

[EN] The students of the Faculties of Engineering of the Universitty of Basque Country (Gipuzkoa-Eibar and Bilbao) in the last years of their studies, before becoming engineers, have the opportunity to select a block of subjects intended to enhance their knowledge on Wind Energy, Ocean Energy, Biomass and Hydraulic Energy. These subjects are devoted to different aspects of the water cycle management, and geographical representations of wind, ocean and biomass energy resource. Apart from the transmission of good practices, the focus is practical and is based on hands-on computer real-life exercises, which involves not only intensive programming using high-level software, but also the spatial representation of results. To that purpose three main open source codes are used: EPANET (https://www.epa.gov/water-research/epanet), QGIS (https://www.qgis.org/) and R (https://www.cran.r-project.org/). Students learn how to address real-life problems regarding the correct calculation of water distribution networks with EPANET, geographical representation of wind and ocean energy resource with R, and spatial representation of biomass resource with QGIS.