A (probably unrealistic) wish

It would be super interesting to have a "reality-check" mode where SAM could take actual daily weather/albedo/air mass/etc. measurements, starting from when a system is put into production, run them through the model, and compare to its predictions using TMY to see how a system might be over- or underperforming.

Matt

Dear Matt,

If you have measured weather and solar irradiance data for a project, it is possible to use it in SAM to make a comparison like the one you describe.

Also, you can download "single year" weather files over the range of 1998-2017 from the NREL National Solar Radiation Database in addition to the typical meteorological year (TMY) files. That makes it possible to compare results from a TMY file to results from a specific year. See sam.nrel.gov/weather for more about using weather data in SAM.

Best regards,
Paul.