Yes. PyPSA Labs is a non-profit dedicated to climate protection and the advancement of science and research. Keeping PyPSA free and open source is how we pursue that purpose, and securing its long-term funding and maintenance is written into our articles of association.
Yes, they will still be addressed. The proceeds from our services fund not only development, but also the time we spend answering community questions. Addressing bug reports is in our self-interest and we are grateful for the community's help in identifying them.
PyPSA is an open source software package with a large community contributing to it. PyPSA Labs is a non-profit company started by the team that initially developed PyPSA to steward and fund the further development, secure long-term maintenance, and to support users of PyPSA.
PyPSA Labs was started by employees of the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), but there is no formal relationship between PyPSA Labs and TU Berlin. PyPSA Labs focuses on the software package PyPSA, providing services to its users. TU Berlin focuses on research in the field of energy system modelling, using PyPSA and developing new features for it.
PyPSA Meets Earth is a community initiative to promote open modelling, open data, open source solver support and open communities for energy system planning. While there is no formal relationship between PyPSA Labs and PyPSA Meets Earth, there is coordination and collaboration between the teams.
PyPSA Labs supports PyPSA in general, but of the open models built with PyPSA it can currently only offer specific support for the European model PyPSA-Eur and its derivatives. In the future, a broader portfolio of models may be supported, but that depends on the demand and the resources available to us.
PyPSA Labs is funded by the co-founders' initial investment, by workshop fees and support subscriptions. As a non-profit organisation (gGmbH), PyPSA Labs is able to issue tax-deductible donation receipts and accept grant funding for research projects. We will always be transparent about our financing.
PyPSA development until now was mostly funded as a by-product of publicly funded research grants. From 2015 to 2017 PyPSA was initially developed through the German BMBF-funded CoNDyNet project at FIAS; then from 2018 to 2021 from Tom Brown's Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at KIT; from 2021 onwards through the basic funding of Tom Brown's chair at TU Berlin; from 2022 to 2023 partly through a grant from Breakthrough Energy Sciences; from 2024 to 2027 through a dedicated grant from the German DFG for a research software engineer (taken by Lukas Trippe). Since PyPSA is now co-maintained by several other institutions, they have their own separate funding sources.
Yes. As a German non-profit (gGmbH) we issue tax-deductible donation receipts (Zuwendungsbestätigung) once a year by email. Under German tax law, donations up to €300 per payment do not need a formal receipt. Your bank statement or transfer confirmation is enough proof for the tax office. We only issue a receipt for donations above €300, but if you need one for a smaller amount, just contact us. This matters if you file German income tax. If you are taxed elsewhere, your local rules apply.
PyPSA Labs is a non-profit public benefit company registered in Germany (gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung). All excess proceeds are recycled back into the long-term maintenance and further development of PyPSA in service of our charitable purposes of climate protection and the advancement of science and research. The shareholders are not allowed to receive dividends.
The shares are split between the co-founders: Tom Brown, Fabian Neumann, Iegor Riepin and Lukas Trippe.
PyPSA Labs is focused on maintaining and developing PyPSA, providing support, conducting training and completing research projects. We do not intend to develop many consultancy projects for clients; for this there are many other companies offering this service: Climact, d-fine, Energynautics, Open Energy Transition and TransitionZero.
Our workshops are in English, unless otherwise stated.