Terms

Understanding Terms in Aire

Terms are the fundamental building blocks of every model in Aire. Similar to named variables in code or defined cells in a spreadsheet, terms capture your inputs, calculations, constants, and outputs in a structured, reusable way.

Everything in the platform—formulas, views, scenarios, exports—traces back to terms. They are how logic moves through a model.

What is a Term?

A term is a single, addressable component of the model. It might represent:

• An input (e.g. electricity price)

• A derived calculation (e.g. annual revenue = price × output)

• A constant (e.g. inflation rate = 0.02)

• An output (e.g. NPV, IRR, LCOE)

Terms connect every part of your model, enabling logic to be traceable, auditable, and reusable across scenarios and workflows.

Term Metadata

Each term carries structured metadata to support clarity and automation:

• Label – A human-readable display name

• Unit – The physical or financial unit (e.g. %, USD/kW, tons/year)

• Description – A plain-text explanation of the term’s meaning or intent

• Source – A citation or reference indicating where the value came from (e.g. user input, paper, lab result, past project)

• Cases – Alternate values for the term based on different assumptions or scenarios (e.g. low, base, high)

Metadata travels with the term throughout the model—across formulas, scenario switching, views, QA workflows, and exports.

Term Cases

A case is an alternate value for a term, used to model uncertainty or a different scenario

For example, a term like Electricity Price might have three different cases corresponding to a different expected input:

• Low: $40/MWh

• Base: $60/MWh

• High: $80/MWh

You can assign as many cases to any term to explore uncertainty, compare options, or build out scenario logic.

Cases are lightweight and modular—they don’t copy the model, they enrich it with structured variability

Cases power:

• Scenario switching

• Sensitivity analysis

• Structured comparisons across views and export

Formulas

Terms can be:

• Defined by formulas – for example: Annual Energy Production = Capacity × Capacity factor × 8760)

• Referenced in formulas – for example: Revenue = Annual Energy Production x Electricity Price

Formulas in Aire are declarative: they express logic using a combination of referenced terms and hardcoded values. This makes the logic transparent, modular, and easy to audit or refactor.

Downstream terms automatically update when upstream terms or formulas change—enabling dynamic, dependency-aware modeling.

Where Terms Live

Terms live inside blocks—modular units of logic that group related terms together. A block might represent:

• A technical subsystem (e.g. a solar array, electrolyzer, or pipeline)

• A financial component (e.g. loan structure, depreciation)

• A structural section of the model (e.g. project wrap, summary)

Blocks can nest inside other blocks, allowing you to model complex systems in a modular, composable way.

How Terms Are Used

Terms are the foundation for all platform workflows:

• Formulas use them to compute downstream logic

• Views display them for analysis and reporting

• Scenarios swap between term cases to model different outcomes

• AI tools interpret them to extract insights or flag risks

• Exports package them for presentations, memos, or investor deliverables