Hello,
SAM's power tower models in SAM can only be used with one of the PPA models (Utility IPP, Single Owner, etc.). For those models, SAM calculates a PPA price or project IRR, NPV, and other metrics appropriate for large, power generation project. SAM only calculates the payback period for the residential and commercial financial models, which are not available for the power tower models.
If you want to calculate the payback period, you can export the year zero investment amount and energy value row from the project cash flow, and calculate it outside of SAM.
Best regards,
Paul.