Analysis of programming languages used in solving energy problems

Abstract

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the energy sector is becoming increasingly common. From data collection, recording and dissemination of energy information to design, planning and management of energy systems, scientific computing skills and tools, amount them programming languages. Depending on the problem to be solved, the choice of programming language is often very decisive for achieving the expected results. This article presents an analysis of the state of art of programming languages used in the energy domain and propose a case study of the programming languages to be used depending on the problem to be solved renewable energies sector. Programming languages for scientific computing are divided into two main classes: General Purpose Languages (GPL) and Domain Specific Languages (DSL); knowing a GPL make one better at using DSL. The analysis carried out shows that in energy engineering, the most used GPLs are C++ and python. Likewise, the most prominent DSLs are Julia, R and Matlab. The most suitable language for scientific computing, data science, visualization, and high-performance computing problems is Python. However, Julia which is in full expansion is not to be overlooked as it is dedicated to energy.