Monthly Weather file format

Hi there,

How can I create a simple weather file which includes only monthly insolation data excluding any hourly or sub-hourly records?

I have data in the format:

Source Location ID City State Country Latitude Longitude Time Zone Elevation
x x x x x x x x x x
Year Month GHI DNI DHI Tdry Twet RH Pres Wspd Wdir Albedo
2011 1 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 2 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 3 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 4 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 5 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 6 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 7 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 8 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 9 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 10 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 11 x x x x x x x x x x
2011 12 x x x x x x x x x x

Thanks!

Hello,

SAM requires a weather file with either hourly our subhourly data. It will not run on monthly data.

Best regards,
Paul.

Dear Paul,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I am working on a research project which aims to find the optimum sampling rate of insolation data to be used when designing future solar farms. I aim to find a relationship between the quality of insolation data input and the PV array output.

So far I have successfully simulated results for minutely, half-hourly and hourly data, and now want to do the same for monthly data.

I would appreciate it if you could give me any suggestions on how this could be done using SAM?

Thanks alot!

regards,

Eranda.

Dear Eranda,

There is not a way to use SAM to run a simulation for a year using twelve monthly time steps. SAM's photovoltaic model calculates the sun position in each simulation time step to determine the solar radiation incident on the array. It is not possible to do that sort of calculation for an entire month.

Best regards,
Paul.