Installation#

Brightway is a Python software package. A user interface is available, but not necessary for use. Brightway can be installed using the Python package installer pip or the multi-language package management system conda. This guide uses conda.

Note

Brightway supports Python 2 and 3 (>3.4). However, we recommend you use Python 3.

Installing Brightway Locally#

Prerequisites

  1. A working installation of Conda

  2. Basic knowledge of Conda environments

  3. Basic knowledge of the difference between brightway2 and brightway 25

Note

Brightway runs natively on Unix (x64) systems, including Linux distributions and macOS.

  1. Create a new Conda environment (in this example named bw):

conda create -n bw -c cmutel brightway25 jupyterlab

  1. Activate the environment:

conda activate bw

Note

Brightway runs natively on Windows (x64) systems, including Windows 7-11.

  1. Create a new Conda environment (in this example named bw):

conda create -n bw -c cmutel brightway25 jupyterlab

  1. Activate the environment:

conda activate bw

  1. Install pywin32:

conda install pywin32

Note

Brightway runs on the new Apple Silicon ARM architecture. However, the super-fast linear algebra software library pypardiso is not compatible with the ARM processor architecture. To avoid critical errors during instruction that would break core functionality, a different version of Brightway (brightway_nosolver) must be installed, which includes a different linear algebra software library (scikit-umfpack).

  1. Create a new Conda environment (in this example named bw):

conda create -n bw -c cmutel -c conda-forge brightway25_nosolver jupyterlab scikit-umfpack

  1. Activate the environment:

conda activate bw

Updating Brightway#

Brightway is being actively developed, with frequent new releases. To update Brightway:

conda update conda
conda update -c cmutel brightway25

Warning

Newer versions of Brightway can introduce breaking changes. We recommend you create a new Conda environment for each project, and only update Brightway when you are ready to update your project.