Okay I can work on this.

One thing I was thinking as well was maybe breaking out the variable map dictionary into a separate module and calling the module from the primary library module. This doubles the number of files, but separates the data (variable map) piece from the actual code. The advantage here is that we don't have to update the primary library module every time we need to update the variable map. A second advantage is as the variable map dictionary grows then we don't have to have data taking up more and more of the primary library module real estate (thus making reading it unwieldy). I can see two ways of doing this, one just having a global dictionary in the secondary module and calling it via the a module import in the primary library module or two putting the dictionary in a function in the variable map module and calling the function (with its return being the dictionary) after a module import.

Given my lack of experience with programming guidelines in pvlib-python I am not sure which fits project structure best. Which of these options (or if there is another option) would be the preferable route for doing this? Or do we just want to leave the variable map in the primary library module.

Thanks.

That's amazing @chzapo !!
I recommend keeping it in the current module for the following reasons:

• There are other VARIABLE_MAP's in pvlib, each one for different API services.
• Documentation and references are all kept in the same place, to ease maintenance.

Just a heads up, a lot of things go on in each PR and at first it may feel a little overwhelming. So if you need any help feel free to reach out. A good starting point is this documentation page.