Sections
Getting Started
  • Work through the tutorial available on the downloads page.
  • Read and/or subscribe to the support forums.
  • Peruse some images of the software in action.
Commercial Version
A commercial version of openWind is planned for clients who require:
  • authenticated reports
  • authenticated binaries
  • custom development
  • support contracts
Licensing
Please contact the openWind team regarding:
  • developing products from the openWind codebase
  • developing plugins to the openWind codebase

News

New Release

A new version is available for download. Contains many fixes and improvements.

We continue to iterate towards a finished commercial version. All users should download and use this latest version.

I have been asked if we will continue to support the open-source version once we start offering the commercial version. The answer is yes. However, this support will likely be limited to minor improvements and bug-fixes. The commercial version shares most of its source-code with the open-source version and so if we fix or improve something that happens to be in the open-source version then this will be available for free. Our emphasis though is shifting towards the commercial version as we feel that openWind now offers pretty much everything an educational/research user or small wind developer/consultant would need. Our commercial features are aimed more at large wind developers and people heading towards project financing.

Please consider that this project is unlike most open-source projects in that it is fully-funded by a private company (AWS Truewind LLC.) and that over 99% of the code is written by just one person.

The most important improvements you will see over the next few versions will be driven by validation and testing. Our aim is to provide a commercially usable basic open-source wind farm design tool. The next step is up to you: use it for research; contribute new wind-flow/wake models; take the code base (so long as you abide by the terms of the Open Software Licence v3) and apply it to an altogether different problem; suggest your own proprietary modules to us so that we can partner with you.

Like any other open-source project, openWind will continue to rely on you for testing and suggested improvements long after our commercial offerings become available.

Work is still underway to better incorporate data from CFD models such as Meteodyn. At present Meteodyn are the only CFD  package (that we know of) which supports output to openWind. I am optimistic that the ability to import fields such as turbulence intensity and inflow angle will provide a rich seam of opportunities for those of you in the WRA research community.

I hope you enjoy this latest version,

Nick




Document Actions
  • Send this page to somebody
  • Print this page