WIFA (Wind Farm API)

WIFA is an open-source multi-fidelity wind farm simulation framework that provides a unified interface to multiple flow modeling tools.

Features

• Multi-fidelity support: Engineering wake models (PyWake, foxes), atmospheric perturbation model (wayve), and CFD (code_saturne)
• Unified interface: Same input format works with all tools via WindIO schema
• CLI and Python API: Run simulations from command line or integrate into workflows
• Flexible inputs: Time series, Weibull wind roses, turbine-specific conditions
• Comprehensive outputs: Turbine power, AEP, flow fields in NetCDF format

Supported Tools

Tool	Install	Type	Speed	Use Case
PyWake	wifa[py_wake]	Engineering wake model	Fast	AEP estimation, layout optimization
foxes	wifa[foxes]	Engineering wake model	Fast	Large farms, long time series
wayve	wifa[wayve]	Atmospheric perturbation model	Medium	Gravity waves, farm blockage
code_saturne	n/a	CFD (RANS)	Slow (HPC)	Detailed flow analysis

Quick Start

Installation

We recommend using uv for fast, reliable Python environment management:

# Install uv (if not already installed)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Create environment and install WIFA
uv venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install wifa              # core only
uv pip install "wifa[all]"       # all tools
uv pip install "wifa[py_wake]"   # single tool

Or with pip:

pip install wifa              # core only
pip install "wifa[all]"       # all tools
pip install "wifa[py_wake]"   # single tool

Run a Simulation

# Using CLI
wifa examples/cases/windio_4turbines/wind_energy_system/system.yaml

# Tool-specific
wifa_foxes system.yaml
wifa_pywake system.yaml

Python API

from wifa.main_api import run_api

# Run simulation (tool selected from YAML)
run_api("path/to/system.yaml")

# Or use tool-specific API
from wifa.foxes_api import run_foxes
results = run_foxes("system.yaml", engine="process", n_procs=4)

Input Format

WIFA uses WindIO-formatted YAML files:

# system.yaml
name: My Wind Farm Study
site: !include ../site/site.yaml
wind_farm: !include ../farm/farm.yaml
attributes:
  flow_model:
    name: foxes  # or pywake, wayve, codesaturne
  analysis: !include analysis.yaml
  model_outputs_specification:
    output_folder: "results"
    turbine_outputs:
      turbine_nc_filename: 'turbine_data.nc'

See the documentation for complete schema details.

Examples

The examples/cases/ directory contains ready-to-run cases:

• windio_4turbines - Basic 4-turbine example
• simple_wind_rose - Weibull wind rose input
• heterogeneous_wind_rose_at_turbines - Per-turbine wind conditions
• timeseries_with_operating_flag - Turbine availability modeling
• windio_4turbines_ABL - Atmospheric boundary layer case
• And more...

Architecture

Documentation

Full documentation: https://euflow.github.io/WIFA/

• Getting Started
• Installation Guide
• Examples
• API Reference
• Troubleshooting

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Set up development environment:

   uv venv --python 3.11
   source .venv/bin/activate
   uv pip install -e ".[all,dev,test]"

4. Make your changes
5. Run tests: pytest tests/
6. Submit a pull request

Citation

If you use WIFA in your research, please cite:

@software{wifa2024,
  title = {WIFA: Wind Farm API},
  author = {EU-FLOW Consortium},
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://github.com/EUFLOW/WIFA}
}

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

WIFA is developed within the EU-FLOW project. The embedded tools are developed by:

• PyWake: DTU Wind Energy
• foxes: Fraunhofer IWES
• wayve: KU Leuven
• code_saturne: EDF