The System Advisor Model™ (SAM™) is free software, and you are welcome to use it for your academic research and for commercial uses.
In documentation of your research or analysis based on SAM results, we ask that you acknowledge your use of the System Advisor Model and mention the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which develops the software, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which funds most of NREL's work on SAM.
Here are some suggestions for SAM citations in a reference list or bibliography for a journal article and other publications. Refer to your publication guidelines for correct formatting. These examples are for SAM 2024.12.12 -- you should use the version number appropriate for your work when you cite SAM. For a list of SAM version numbers see either the SAM Download page or the SAM release notes.
Citing the SAM software
System Advisor Model™ Version 2024.12.12 (SAM™ 2024.12.12). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. Accessed January 22, 2025. https://https://sam.nrel.gov .
Citing a topic in the SAM user documentation
System Advisor Model™ Version 2024.12.12 (SAM™ 2024.12.12) User Documentation. Weather File Formats. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO.
Citing content from the SAM website
System Advisor Model™ Version 2024.12.12 (SAM™ 2024.12.12) Website. PV Cost Data. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. Accessed January 22, 2025. https://sam.nrel.gov/photovoltaic/pv-cost-component.html.
Citing the SAM general description
Blair, N.; Dobos, A.; Freeman, J.; Neises, T.; Wagner, M.; Ferguson, T.; Gilman, P.; Janzou, S. (2014). System Advisor Model™, SAM™ 2014.1.14: General Description. NREL/TP-6A20-61019. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. Accessed January 22, 2025. www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/61019.pdf .
Citing PySAM
PySAM Version 5.1.0. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. Accessed January 22, 2025. github.com/nrel/pysam.
Citing Code from the SAM Open Source code repositories
This example is for citing source code for SAM's PVWatts performance model. You can use a similar approach for different models.
System Advisor Model™ Version 2024.12.12 (SAM™ 2024.12.12). SSC source code for the PVWatts module. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. Accessed January 22, 2025. https://github.com/NREL/ssc/blob/develop/ssc/cmod_pvwattsv8.cpp.