LCOE calculator

Dear,
when I run My LCOE calculator model of biomass the value of the outputs in metrice is NAN.
I don't know why?

Please, answer me.

Metric Value
Annual energy (year 1) NaN
Annual biomass usage (year 1) 93,000 dry tons/yr
Capacity factor (year 1) NaN
Levelized cost of energy NaN

Dear Suzan,
The value "NaN" means "not a number" and indicates that SAM was unable to calculate the value of the metric. In this case, it looks like the biomass combustion model was unable to calculate the value of the system's electrical output, which suggests that there is a problem with your inputs. You may want to click the "Notices" button on the Results page to see if there is an indication of what the problem might be. (If you do not see the Notices button, click the Ellipses (...) button to list buttons that do not fit on the page.)
If you cannot find the problem with your inputs, please [url=mailto:sam.support@nrel.gov?subject=Biomass%20and%20LCOE%20Calculator%20results t=_self]email me[/url] your .sam file and I will try to locate the problem for you.
Best regards,

Paul.

Dear Paul;
I have checked the notices but I didn't find any error so I can't fix the problem. In my model I want to calculate the LCOE from a certain amount of rice straw (93000 dry ton/year) the location is cairo Egypt. the moisture is 20.5 % obtainability is 100 %. The other input values which I used is the default values.

Thanks in advance

Suzan

Dear Suzan,

The biomass power model requires a weather file with global horizontal solar radiation data, and the Cairo weather file in SAM's library does not include that data. If you do not have access to a different weather file, you might try one with a similar latitude to Cairo that does include the global horizontal data, for example, you could use the weather file for San Antontio, TX.

The biopower model uses data in the weather file to calculate moisture in the feedstock, and also to calculate thermal losses in the power plant.

I will investigate the role of global horizontal data, and let you know what I find.

Best regards,
Paul.

Thank you Paul. Now there is output from the model. but why the weather file in SAM 2016 doesn't include global horizontal solar radiation data of Egypt, although the version of 2014 includes it.

Thanks in advance
Suzan

Dear Suzan,
The weather files in the later versions of SAM that originated from the EnergyPlus website were processed from the original files, and we omitted the GHI data in the processed files because SAM's solar models do not require the data. If you have the old SAM installation, you can use the EGY_Cairo.Intl.Airport_ETMY.epw file in the new version of SAM.
Otherwise, you can download the EPW file from the EnergyPlus webiste:
energyplus.net/weather
Best regards,

Paul.