Hi Harry,
From your mention of LCOH, I assume you are asking about one of the industrial process heat (IPH) models, either the Parabolic Trough - Heat model or the Linear Fresnel Direct Steam - Heat model.
Unlike the concentrating solar power (CSP) models for electric power generation, the IPH models use a simple fixed charge rate (FCR) method to calculate the levelized cost of heat (LCOH). The CSP models use a detailed cash flow model to calculate a range of financial metrics including net present value, levelized cost of electricity, internal rate of return, etc. The CSP models have more detailed cost inputs, so you can specify costs in $/m2 of solar field area.
For the IPH models, I wrote an LK script that you can use to calculate the LCOH using capital and operating costs given in $/m2. It uses the same method as SAM, but adds a couple of cost category inputs. See the fcr-lcoh-with-cost-per-area.lk script on the LK Samples page (download instructions are at the bottom):
github.com/NREL/SAM/tree/develop/samples/LK%20Scripts%20for%20SAM
Best regards,
Paul.
