WinDESOL is a visual interface for DESOL3 heliostat field optimization code. I have extensively used DELSOL3 and WinDESOL during my work at CTAER and Masdar institute, where I created a Matlab version of DELSOL3 to generate CSP performance maps.

MIRVAL is a Monte Carlo program which simulates the heliostats and a portion of the receiver for solar energy central receiver power plants. SPRAY is based on MIRVAL, but it has been extensively modified for more flexibility. During my time at Ferrostaal I used SPRAY for the optimization of the flux distribution in the receiver of a molten salt tower. During my master thesis I created a VBA macro that invoked SPRAY from Excel for visualize the flux distribution and run parametric studies. The image on the left shows the frontend of this VBA macro.

HELIOS is a flexible computer code for evaluating central receiver, parabolic dish, and other reflective solar energy collector designs. I have used HELIOS to compare other optical codes. HELIOS uses Fast-Fourier transformations, which is an amazing tool when it comes to large heliostat fields.

TONATIUH is an open source Monte Carlo ray tracer for the optical simulation of concentrating solar systems. I used Tonatiuh during my PhD thesis to evaluate the optical performance of linear fresnel optics. Most of the time I used Tonatiuh coupled with Python for more advanced calculations.

PVSYST is a software package for the study, sizing and data analysis of complete PV systems. PVSYST is considered the "reference tool" when designing PV projects, and it is considered one of the most important tools for PV performence assessment. I used PVSYST extensively at ISER for the development of solar farms (up to 6 MW).

If you ask wikipedia, it will tell you that Python is a high-level interpreted general-purpose programming language. If you ask me, I'll tell you that Python is by far the most flexible and useful programming language out there. I fell in love with Python in 2016, and since then I use it for everything (this website included). I am also active in the python community, having attended several PyConEs (Python Conference in Spanish) and local meetings/webminars. I use Python for both professional programming and my personal projects.

R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. I learnt R to understand and use some codes written in R. Although I prefer programming in Python, sometimes I perform data intensive tasks in R. I am fully capable to write complex scripts in R but I takes me more time than in other languages.

Fortran is a general-purpose, compiled imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. My first introduction to Fortran came with Trnsys (since trnsys types are written in this language). During my time at CTAER I worked extensively with solar codes written in Fortran (Helios, NSPOC, MIRVAL, etc.), where I modified, wrote from scratch, and compiled my own Fortran scripts. Although it is more powerful for computationally intensive applications, I currently prefer other programming languages.

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. PHP was my first experience in web development. I learned from books and online tutorials. The first version of the SHIPcal interface was written in PHP and used a mySQL database. I progressively replaced PHP with Python / Django.

Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel. My favorite Linux operating system for personal use is Linux. At work, I need to use Windows for compatibility requirements, but I always set my computer to dual boot. Since the online servers we use at SOLATOM have Linux installed, I have also become used to using Linux from the command line.

Being fluent in web development, of course, requires some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JS. For most of my projects, I use Bootstrap in the interface. In my personal projects I create the frontend from scratch, but for more "public" projects I modify more "fancy" commercial templates. I will never be a frontend guru but I can do websites like this one.

IPSEpro is a software system for calculating heat balances and simulating processes. It comprises a set of software modules for creating process models for a wide range of applications and for utilizing these models throughout the lifecycle of process plants. I used IPSEpro during my master's thesis at Ferrostaal. I modified the CRS model included in CSP_Lib to model the multi-tower approach of eSolar. During that time I also developed my own receiver model based on Michael Wagner's receiver model in SAM, and I implemented it in IPSEpro. In addition to the IPSEpro Process Simulation Environment (PSE), I used PSEpro-PSXLink to run annual simulations with Excel.

TRNSYS is a graphical-based software environment used to simulate the behavior of transient systems. Most simulations focus on evaluating the performance of electrical and thermal power systems. I first came across Trnsys during my undergraduate thesis, when I used it to evaluate the energy performance of a building in Belgium. Later, at ISER, I developed a tool for solar cooling applications using the Climatewell trnsys type. I have continued to use Trnsys is CTAER for CSP applications.

EES is a general equation solving program that can numerically solve thousands of coupled nonlinear algebraic and differential equations. I learned EES during my master studies where I used it to calculate thermodynamic cycles in thermal power plants. In my master at PSA I developed a model to predict the performance of Direct Solar Steam Generation plants. At Ferrostaal I created 67 simplified EES models of Rankine cycles, to be used in Monte Carlo optimizations.

MATLAB is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numerical computing environment developed by MathWorks. I used Matlab during my university studies for equation solving purposes mainly. I continued to use Matlab during my time at CTAER, where all the energy efficiency calculations were done using Matlab scripts. After CTAER I continued using Matlab for the first few years of my PhD. Then, I moved to Octave (free license software similar to Matlab), and since 2016, I write all energy related models in Python.

SAM is a free techno-economic software model that models many types of renewable energy systems such as: photovoltaic systems, battery storage, concentrating solar power systems, wind power, etc. SAM is one of my favorite programs for simulating renewable energy systems. I learned how to use it during my master in Seville, and became proficient during my work with IRENA, in which I developed a CSP simulator from scratch based on SAM & Greenius. Although I have experience using SAM's visual interface, I prefer to use its Python wrapper called PySAM.

AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided drawing and design software application. I used Autocad during my university studies and mainly in ISER and CTAER for project design. I currently use other free alternatives similar to Autocad.

Solid Edge is a 3D CAD, parametric feature and synchronous technology solid modeling software. I used Solid Edge at ISER to design rooftop and ground photovoltaic projects. I have also modeled hydraulic systems (pipes, fittings and components).

SketchUp is a 3D modeling computer program for a broad range of drawing and design applications. I always use Sketchup for rapid prototyping, 3D volumetric analysis, and shadow evaluation. I also used Sketchup for academic purposes several times. The figure on the left is a project I did during my time at ULB in Belgium. I modeled the entire building and neiberhood from scratch, and then rendered the model adding lights and textures.

Microsoft Office is a set of computer applications that are used primarily for business or office purposes. I regularly use MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel. In CTAER and ISER I also used MS Project and Visio. In my personal time I use Linux, so I combine MS Office with tools like Google Suite and Open Office, and Latex for research (only when necessary).

Adobe Creative Suite is a graphic design, video editing, and web development application software package developed by Adobe Systems. I used the Adobe suite at CTAER. I used most of Adobe Illustrator for scientific graphic design and data visualization. I have also used Photoshop and AfterEffects, but not for long.

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is an implementation of Microsoft's event-based programming language, Visual Basic. I only use VBA in MS Excel. I loved building Excel macros during my university studies and wowing my friends. This experience proved to be very valuable for some projects in my professional life (mainly when interconnecting IPSEpro and SPRAY to Excel). Today I only use VBA to help friends and family automate Excel routines.

NSPOC is a heliostat field optimization tool based on the ASPOC code developed within the GAST project (1982-86). It is written in FORTRAN77 and has no GUI. For 3 years I had monthly meetings with Paco Ramos (the creator of NSPOC), improving and adapting NSPOC within the framework of the CAPTORSOL project. During my time at CTAER, I developed a simplified version of NSPOC and combined it with CSP models in Trnsys. Using Trnedit, I created a standalone application with visual interfaces for CRS optimization.

Django is a Python-based free and open-source web framework that follows the model–template–views architectural pattern. Once I discovered Django in 2018, I left PHP and never came back. From rapid prototyping, to very large and complex projects like my work at IRENA, ReSSSPI or this website, all of my projects use Django. Lately I am also exploring other lighter Python alternatives for fast implementation (mainly for sharing data science personal projects) but Django is the only one I feel more comfortable with.

I have worked and studied machine learning since 2016. The main libraries I use are the classic ones: Scikit-Lear, Tensorflow, Keras and PyTorch. Some interesting examples are the following:

• SWIPH, SAM Wrapper For Industrial Process Heat Models
• Predicting energy-based data from financial data
• PABLO (Probabilistic Algorithm for Better Lead acquisitiOn)
• Biwerbot

My favorite visualization library in Python is Bokeh. I almost always use the bokeh library for the graphics included in my projects. An example is the figure shown on the left. The figure combines a heat map with geodata by province. You can see it online here

I use data scraping for various personal and professional projects. Always in Python, my favorite library for complex HTML fetching is Selenium, although I also use simpler methods based on Requests when the data is easy to get. To parse I always use Beautiful Soup. In the near future I want to learn Scrapy, but I need to find the right time!