The German Aerospace Center has released a free version of the simulation program FreeGreenius. The program brings together technical and commercial aspects and is able to calculate the yield that a renewable power plant project will bring at a certain location. It determines how a system must be designed and constructed to ensure it can feed the targeted quantity of power into the grid. System planners and investors are provided with a preliminary overview of whether, and under which conditions, a solar thermal power plant, a wind turbine, or a photovoltaic power plant would be best suited to the site in question.
The program is fed with hourly values of global radiation, direct sunlight, or wind speed over the course of a typical year and considers the economic framework in order to estimate a system’s efficiency. Funding programmes for the construction of renewable systems in certain regions and the interest rates for loans and equity also play an important role.
DLR developed FreeGreenius in an ongoing exchange with system constructors; it is continuously being adapted to keep up with technical progress. FreeGreenius receives funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit; BMU).
The program is used in training programmes for engineers, among others, as part of the DLR enerMENA curriculum, and is intended to promote the introduction of wind turbines and solar power plants to the market.
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR; German Aerospace Center), Cologne, Germany
- FreeGreenius
