SlopeEXCL - Slope-based Exclusion

SlopeEXCL generates .tif files to exclude areas unsuitable for wind and solar energy placements based on slope thresholds.

• Wind Turbines: Applies a uniform slope threshold across all aspects.
• Solar Panels: Allows distinct thresholds for south-facing and north-east-west-facing slopes.

The generated .tif files can be integrated as exclusion layers in renewable energy planning tools like GLAES. For example, in Glaes:

ec.excludeRasterType(os.path.join(data_path, 'exclude_slope_pv.tif'), value=1, prewarp=True)

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Getting Started

Download of files is indicated by 📋.

Code execution is indicated by 👉.

Set up Python and install the required dependencies (rasterio, numpy, scipy, os, argparse).

📋 This repository requires a 3-arc-second resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from HydroSHEDS. Place the downloaded DEM in the data folder and rename to "fulL_dem".

Clip the DEM

DEMs for entire continents are often too large to process efficiently. To avoid excessive file sizes, clip the DEM to your area of interest (e.g., a country).

📋 You can download country boundary GeoJson files from opendatasoft based on their ISO3 code. Place the .geojson file in the data folder and rename to "country_boundary".

👉 Clip the DEM to your country using the provided script:

python clip_raster_to_boundary.py --raster data/full_dem.tif --boundary data/country_boundary.geojson --output data/dem.tif

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How to Run

👉 Execute the script from the terminal:

python exclude_slope.py --type [solar|wind|both] --solar-nea [value] --solar-s [value] --wind-thresh [value] --output [filename]

Example with custom values:

python exclude_slope.py --type both --solar-nea 6.28 --solar-s 33 --wind-thresh 8.53 --output exclusion.tif

To use the default values, omit the optional arguments:

python exclude_slope.py --type both

The script will then use:

• --solar-nea: 6.28 (degrees)
• --solar-s: 33 (degrees)
• --wind-thresh: 8.53 (degrees)
• --sigma: 1
• --output: exclusion.tif

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Repository Structure

• exclude_slope.py: Python script for generating exclusion files.
• exclude_slope.ipynb: Jupyter notebook for running the same code interactively.
• data: Directory for raw input file dem.tif.
• output: Directory where generated .tif files will be saved.