An S4 class to represent technology — class-technology • energyRt

Technology of a technological process in the model is used to convert input commodities into output commodities with consumption or production of auxiliary commodities linked to other parameters or variables of the technology. A broad set of parameters provides flexibility to model various technological processes, including efficiency, availability, costs, and exogenous shocks (weather factors).

Slots

name

character. Name of the technology, used in sets.

desc

character. Optional description of the technology for reference.

input

data.frame. Main commodities input. Main commodities are linked to the process capacity and activity. Their parameters are defined in the ceff slot.

comm: character. Name of the input commodity.
unit: character. Unit of the input commodity.
group: character. Name of input-commodities-group.
combustion: numeric. combustion factor from 0 to 1 (default 1) to calculate emissions from fuels combustion (commodities intermediate consumption, more broadly)

output

data.frame. Main commodities output. Main commodities are linked to the process capacity and activity. Their parameters are defined in the ceff slot.

comm: character. Name of the output commodity.
unit: character. Unit of the output commodity.
group: character. Name of output-commodities-group.

aux

data.frame. Auxilary commodities, both input and output, their parameters are defined in the aeff slot.

acomm: character. Name of the auxilary commodity.
unit: character. Unit of the auxilary commodity.

units

data.frame. Key units of the process activity and capacity (for reference).

capacity: character. Unit of capacity
use: character. Unit of 'use' (grouped input) if applicable.
activity: character. Unit of activity variable of the technology.
costs: character. Currency of costs variable of the technology.

group

data.frame. Details for commodity groups if defined in input and output slots (for reference).

group: character. Name of the group. Must match the group names in the input and output slots.
desc: character. Description of the group.
unit: character. Unit of the group.

cap2act

numeric. Capacity to activity ratio. Default is 1. Specifies how much product (activity, or output commodity if identical) will be produced per unit of capacity.

geff

data.frame. Input-commodity-group efficiency parameters.

region: character. Name of region to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of slice to apply the parameter, NA for every slice.
group: character. Name of group to apply the parameter. Required, must match the group names in the input and output slots.
ginp2use: numeric. Group-input-to-use coefficient, default is 1.

ceff

data.frame. Main commodity and activity efficiency parameters.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of slice to apply the parameter, NA for every slice.
comm: character. Name of commodity to apply the parameter, different parameters require specification either input or output commodity.
cinp2use: numeric. Commodity-input-to-use coefficient, default is 1.
use2cact: numeric. Use-to-commodity-activity coefficient, default is 1.
cact2cout: numeric. Commodity-activity-to-commodity-output coefficient, default is 1.
cinp2ginp: numeric. Commodity-input-to-group-input coefficient, default is 1.
share.lo: numeric. Lower bound on a share of commodity within a group, default is 0.
share.up: numeric. Upper bound on a share of commodity within a group, default is 1.
share.fx: numeric. Fixed share of commodity within a group, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides share.lo and share.up.
afc.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the physical value of the commodity, ignored if NA.
afc.up: numeric. Upper bound on the physical value of the commodity, ignored if NA.
afc.fx: numeric. Fixed physical value of the commodity, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides afc.lo and afc.up.

aeff

data.frame. Parameters linking main commodities, activities, and capacities to auxiliary commodities.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of slice to apply the parameter, NA for every slice.
acomm: character. Name of auxilary commodity to apply the parameter.
cinp2ainp: numeric. Main-commodity-input-to-auxilary-commodity-input coefficient, ignored if NA.
cinp2aout: numeric. Main-commodity-input-to-auxilary-commodity-output coefficient, ignored if NA.
cout2ainp: numeric. Main-commodity-output-to-auxilary-commodity-input coefficient, ignored if NA.
cout2aout: numeric. Main-commodity-output-to-auxilary-commodity-output coefficient, ignored if NA.
act2ainp: numeric. Technology-activity-to-auxilary-commodity-input coefficient, ignored if NA.
act2aout: numeric. Technology-activity-to-auxilary-commodity-output coefficient, ignored if NA.
cap2ainp: numeric. Technology-capacity-to-auxilary-commodity-input coefficient, ignored if NA.
cap2aout: numeric. Technology-capacity-to-auxilary-commodity-output coefficient, ignored if NA.
ncap2ainp: numeric. Technology-new-capacity-to-auxilary-commodity-input-coefficient, ignored if NA.
ncap2aout: numeric. Technology-new-capacity-to-auxilary-commodity-output coefficient, ignored if NA.

af

data.frame. Timeslice-level availability factor parameters.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of slice to apply the parameter, NA for every slice.
af.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the availability factor, default is 0.
af.up: numeric. Upper bound on the availability factor, default is 1.
af.fx: numeric. Fixed availability factor, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides af.lo and af.up.
rampup: numeric. Ramping-up time constraint RHS value, ignored if NA. Depends on the technology timeframe.
rampdown: numeric. Ramping-down time constraint RHS value, ignored if NA. Depends on the technology timeframe.

afs

data.frame. Timeframe-level availability factor constraints.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of slice to apply the parameter, required.
afs.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the availability factor for the timeframe, default is 0.
afs.up: numeric. Upper bound on the availability factor for the timeframe, default is 1.
afs.fx: numeric. Fixed availability factor for the timeframe, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides afs.lo and afs.up.

weather

data.frame. Parameters linking weather factors (external shocks specified by weather class) to the availability parameters af, afs, and afc.

weather: character. Name of the applied weather factor, required, must match the weather factor names in a weather class in the model.
comm: character. Name of the commodity with specified afc.* to be affected by the weather factor, required if afc.* parameters are specified.
wafc.lo: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the lower bound on the commodity availability parameter afc.lo, ignored if NA.
wafc.up: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the upper bound on the commodity availability parameter afc.up, ignored if NA.
wafc.fx: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the fixed value of the commodity availability parameter afc.fx, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides wafc.lo and wafc.up.
waf.lo: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the lower bound on the availability factor parameter af.lo, ignored if NA.
waf.up: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the upper bound on the availability factor parameter af.up, ignored if NA.
waf.fx: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the fixed value on the availability factor parameter af.fx, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides waf.lo and waf.up.
wafs.up: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the upper bound on the availability factor parameter afs.up, ignored if NA.
wafs.lo: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the lower bound on the availability factor parameter afs.lo, ignored if NA.
wafs.fx: numeric. Multiplying coefficient to the fixed value on the availability factor parameter afs.fx, ignored if NA. This parameter overrides wafs.lo and wafs.up.

fixom

data.frame. Fixed operational and maintenance cost (per unit of capacity a year).

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
fixom: numeric. Fixed operational and maintenance cost, default is 0.

varom

data.frame. Variable operational and maintenance cost (per unit of activity or commodity).

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
slice: character. Name of the time-slice or (grand-)parent timeframe to apply the parameter, NA for every time-slice of the technology timeframe.
varom: numeric. Variable operational and maintenance cost per unit of activity, default is 0.
comm: character. Name of the commodity for which the parameter will be applied, required for cvarom parameter.
cvarom: numeric. Variable operational and maintenance cost per unit of commodity, default is 0.
acomm: character. Name of the auxilary commodity for which the avarom will be applied, required for avarom parameter.
avarom: numeric. Variable operational and maintenance cost per unit of auxilary commodity, default is 0.

invcost

data.frame. Total overnight investment costs of the project (per unit of capacity).

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, NA for every year.
invcost: numeric. Total overnight investment costs of the project (per unit of capacity), default is 0.
wacc: numeric. Weighted average cost of capital, (currently ignored).

start

data.frame. The first year the technology can be installed.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
start: integer. The first year the technology can be installed, NA means all years of the modeled horizon.

end

data.frame. The last year the technology can be installed.

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
end: integer. The last year the technology can be installed, default is Inf.

olife

data.frame. Operational life of the installed technology (in years).

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
olife: integer. Operational life of the technology if installed during optimization, in years, default is 1.

capacity

data.frame. Capacity of the installed technology (in units of capacity).

region: character. Region name to apply the parameter, NA for every region.
year: integer. Year to apply the parameter, required, values between specified years will be interpolated.
stock: numeric. Predefined capacity of the technology in units of capacity, default is 0. This parameter also defines the exogenous capacity retirement (age-based), or exogenous capacity additions, not optimized by the model, and not included in investment costs.
cap.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the total capacity (preexisting stock and new installations), ignored if NA.
cap.up: numeric. Upper bound on the total capacity (preexisting stock and new installations), ignored if NA.
cap.fx: numeric. Fixed total capacity (preexisting stock and new installations), ignored if NA. This parameter overrides cap.lo and cap.up.
ncap.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the new capacity (new installations), ignored if NA.
ncap.up: numeric. Upper bound on the new capacity (new installations), ignored if NA.
ncap.fx: numeric. Fixed new capacity (new installations), ignored if NA. This parameter overrides ncap.lo and ncap.up.
ret.lo: numeric. Lower bound on the capacity retirement (age-based), ignored if NA.
ret.up: numeric. Upper bound on the capacity retirement (age-based), ignored if NA.
ret.fx: numeric. Fixed capacity retirement (age-based), ignored if NA. This parameter overrides ret.lo and ret.up.

optimizeRetirement

logical. Incidates if the retirement of the technology should be optimized. Also requires the same parameter in the model or scenario class to be set to TRUE to be effective.

fullYear

logical. Incidates if the technology is operating on a full-year basis. Used in storages. currently ignored for technologies.

timeframe

character. Name of timeframe level the technology is operating. By default, the lowest level of timeframe of commodities used in the technology is applied.

region

character. Vector of regions where the technology exists or can be installed. Optional. If not specified, the technology is applied to all regions. If specified, must include all regions used in other slots.

misc

list. List of additional parameters that are not used in the model but can be used for reference or user-defined functions. For example, links to the source of the technology data, or other metadata.