Installing Pypvcell

The page will lead you through the installation of pypvcell. If you already have your scientific python environment set up, you can skip the next section and directly go to Install pypvcell section.

Setup your Python environment

  1. Download Anaconda or Miniconda. Read this if you are not sure which one suit you best. Both Anaconda and Miniconda offer Python 2.7 and Python 3.x versions. To run pypvcell, you need python 3.x.

  2. If you choose to install Miniconda, type the following script in Powershell or Terminal:

    conda install numpy scipy matplotlib jupyter pandas

  3. You also have to install pint. This is a toolkit for doing unit conversion in python. You can install it by using conda forge:

    conda install -c conda-forge pint

or using pip:

pip install pint

If you did not see error messages during the installations, you should be good to go.

Install Pypvcell

Before you start installing pypvcell, make sure you have the following packages installed in your python environment:

  • Python 3.x or higher
  • Numpy, Scipy, pint, Matplotlib, jupyter

If you followed the procedures described in the previous section, you should be good to continue.

  1. Download pypvcell from gitub and unzip it, or using git clone to download:

    git clone https://github.com/kanhua/pypvcell.git

  2. Switch to the downloaded Pypvcell directory, and install it via pip:

    pip install ./

If you would like to do some experimental changes of pypvcell, you can add parameter -e, i.e.,:

pip install -e ./

In this way, instead of copying file to your python site-packages directory, pip creates a link to your downloaded pypvcell folder. You can then directly play with the code in the pypvcell directory.

P.S. We are planning to add this project to [the python package index](https://pypi.python.org/pypi) after a more steady version of pypvcell is released. This would make the installation through PIP a little bit easier in the future.

Test the Installed Package

In pypvcell/tests/ folder, run:

python3 all_utests.py

If all tests are passed, you should be able to run pypvcell properly on your machine. If you see any issues, feel free to report it here.

What to Explore Next

Run a jupyter notebook file in demos/ folder. For instance:

jupyter notebook ./demos/efficiency_vs_bandgap.ipynb