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Uploading a modified weather file to SAM

  • Redelinghuys
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19 Apr 2022 14:16 #10847 by Redelinghuys
Uploading a modified weather file to SAM was created by Redelinghuys
Hi Paul

I hope you are keeping well.

Could you kindly advise me on the following obstacle?

A have a CSP physical trough model in SAM, and would like to study the effect of pre-cooling inlet air to the ACC on the plant performance.

I have my initial TMY file successfully uploaded in SAM, and am able to conduct simulations with it. I then download it in XLS or CSV format, extract the hourly annual drybulb temperature column, and substitute it with the hourly annual pre-cooled drybulb temperature (pre-processed in an external model). The hourly resolution remains 8760 h.

I then wish to save this updated XLS/CSV meteorological file and upload it onto SAM. Ultimately, I would then re-simulate the SAM model with the modified meteorological file, containing the augmented drybulb temperature. This seems like the obvious approach.

Unfortunately, SAM does not recognise the modified meteorological XLS/CSV file (I have tested both formats) once uploaded; I am unable to select it for simulation. I suspect the XLS/CSV format is the issue.

Do you perhaps have any solutions to recommend? I would really appreciate it.

The SAM project and XLS meteorological files are attached. 

Best wishes,
Louw 
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  • pgilman
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20 Apr 2022 01:21 #10848 by pgilman
Replied by pgilman on topic Uploading a modified weather file to SAM
Hi Louw,

SAM's solar models require a weather file in the SAM CSV format described in Help: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/weather_format_sam_csv_solar.htm

SAM does not recognize weather files with an .xls or .xlsx extension, so please open the file in a spreadsheet program and save it as CSV.

You can then run the "Solar Resource File Checker" macro to help identify any problems in the file. To find it, click Macros under the Simulate button, choose the macro from the list, and run it after reading the instructions.

I tried that with your file, and the macro reported that the file has an invalid value for the time zone. If you fix that problem, the simulation should run using your file.

Best regards,
Paul.

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