CAPACITY FACTOR FOR POWER TOWER

How does SAM estimates the capacity factor of Power Tower systems. What methodology is used in capacity factor estimation?

Please see the Capacity Factor topic in Help for a description of how SAM calculates the capacity factor for all of the performance models.

Capacity Factor = Net Annual Energy (kWhac/yr) / System Capacity (kWac) / 8760 (h/yr)

For the power tower models, the system capacity is from the Power Cycle page, and is called Estimated Net Output at Design for the Molten Salt model, and Net Nameplate Capacity for the Direct Steam model.

Best regards
Paul.