Solar + Storage Optimization

Hi,

Looking to design a solar + solar system around meeting a particular building load. I have the specs for the storage device/pv plant/location and load profile. Is there a way to optimize such that I can figure out the most appropriate pv and storage size and dispatch characteristics?Currently I am just seeing the ability to size each system myself - looking for the system size to be optimized (to minimize total cost). While there may be a few extreme situation to buy power from market - looking for joint system to be able to supply 100% of the load.

Thanks,
Charles

Dear Charles,
SAM does not automatically optimize the PV system and battery size. You can do that by hand, running several simulations iteratively to find the optimal sizes. You could also use the Parametric simulation option to run a set of simulations together and generate a table of results that you can use for the optimization. If you are comfortable with basic computer programming or scripting, you could also use SAM's built-in LK scripting language to write a script to automate the optimization process.
If you are new to SAM or any of these features, you can learn about those various options by watching some of the videos listed on our Videos page:
sam.nrel.gov/videos
You can also read about those features in SAM's help system.
Best regards,

Paul.