POA estimation for Tracking Systems

Hey SAM Support,

Are there any example scripts available that calculate the POA irradiance from a CSV weather file (8760 values per year and containing GHI, Diffuse, Solar Elevation, Solar Azm). I need to be able to generate the POA for both Tracking and Fixed systems. It appears that I should be able to do this with the SAM SSC but was hoping I could use available code instead of re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks!
Taran

Dear Taran,

I don't have a sample LK script to do that. I think you write one more easily in SAM than with the SDKtool because you can ignore the input variables that are not relevant to your project:

1. Start SAM and create a detailed photovoltaic case (choose any financial model).

2. On the Location and Resource page, check the box under "Use a specific weather file on disk." (You could also do this in the script by setting the use_specific_weather_file variable's value to 1.)

3. On the System Design page, assign values to the tracking and orientation inputs. (You could do this in the script too.)

4. Open the LK script editor and create a new script.

5. Set the weather file using the user_specified_weather_file input variable. Its value should be the full path to the weather file, for example:

set('user_specified_weather_file',"C:/SAM/2014.11.24/solar_resource/USA AL Montgomery (TMY2).csv");

6. Use the simulate() function to run a simulation.

7. Store the POA outputs. These are 8,760 arrays, so you might want to write them to a CSV file. Find the POA variables by typing "POA" in the variable browser's search box.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,
Paul.