Generic CSP in southern hemisphere

Hello,

I am pretty unexperienced in using SAM, so please apologize for my question in advance.

I am using SAM 2013.9.20 to model a generic CSP plant in the southern hemisphere. If I use the default settings, an alteration of the sample weather file to a negative latitude, immediately leads to the following error:

SVAL LOOKUP ERROR trnsys.user_trdsrc

As solar field optical efficiency data is defined from -180° to 180° this shouldn't be the problem, right? So, where do I have to search to solve this problem?

Thank you very much in advance.

Dear Paul,

have I described my problem clearly? Is there a simple solution to it? I would appreciate any comment.

Best regards
Hannes

Dear Hannes,

We are looking into this issue, and I will get back to you as soon as I have an answer.

Best regards,
Paul.

Dear Hannes,
If I understand correctly, you are starting with a "sample weather file" for a location in the northern hemisphere, and modifying the file by changing only the latitude value in the file header. That will cause simulations to fail because SAM uses the latitude, longitude, and time stamp values to calculate hourly solar position angles, which will not be consistent with the solar radiation data for the original northern hemisphere location. For example, the solar radiation data on the summer solstice (June 21) will be for the longest day of the year instead of the shortest day of the year as it would be in the southern hemisphere.
You would be better off using a weather file for a southern hemisphere location. For example, there is a file for Alice Springs (Australia) among the files included with SAM. You can download weather files for other locations from one of the sites listed in SAM's Help system .
Best regards,

Paul.

Dear Paul,

thank you a lot for your answer. I did it as you said and I will go for the way you described.

Best regards,
Hannes