Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims to provide sustainable, affordable, reliable and modern
energy access to all by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). In order for this goal to be achieved,
sustainable energy interventions in developing countries must be supported with design tools
which can evaluate the technical performance of energy systems as well as their economic and
climate impacts.
CLOVER (Continuous Lifetime Optimisation of Variable Electricity Resources) is a software
tool for simulating and optimising community-scale energy systems, typically minigrids, to
support energy access in developing countries (Winchester et al., 2022). CLOVER can be used
to model electricity demand and supply at an hourly resolution, for example allowing users to
investigate how an electricity system might perform at a given location. CLOVER can also
identify an optimally-sized energy system to meet the needs of the community under specified
constraints. For example, a user could define an optimum system as one which provides a
desired level of reliability at the lowest cost of electricity. CLOVER can provide an insight
into the technical performance, costs, and climate change impact of a system, and allow the
user to evaluate many different scenarios to decide on the best way to provide sustainable,
affordable and reliable electricity to a community.
CLOVER can be used on both personal computers and high-performance computing facilities.
Its design separates its general framework (code, contained in a source src directory) from
user inputs (data, contained in a directory entitled locations) which are specific to their
investigations. The user inputs these data via a combination of .csv and .yaml files. CLOVER’s
straightforward command-line interface provides simple operation for both experienced Python
users and those with little prior exposure to coding. An installable package, clover-energy, is
available for users to download without needing to become familiar with GitHub’s interface.
Information about CLOVER and how to use it is available on the CLOVER wiki pages.