NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC The Solar Advisor Model Version 2009 Details Nate Blair Aron Dobos Mike Wagner October 30, 2009

Contents - Program Organization - New Model Additions - Simulation Setups - Graphing Capabilities 2 National Renewable Energy LaboratoryInnovation for Our Energy Future

Benefits of having rewritten SAM from the ground up: Significantly faster and runs on a Mac Incorporates a Monte Carlo method for uncertainty analysis Sensitivity and Optimization simulations Provides a framework to eventually allow SAM to run as a web application Allows easy interaction with tools and languages, including Excel and MATLAB Easier maintainability in the future because of new software architecture SAM User Language “SamUL” scripting language Allows greater interaction with risk-assessment tools such and CrystalBall and stochastic analysis Integrated Web Update capability Advantages of SAM 2009

SAM 2009 Block Diagram SAM SIM (Simulator) Hourly Simulation Financial Model Communication (C DLL API) SAM GUI Output Metrics: LCOE, IRR, NPV, Capacity Factor Simulation Management: Parametrics, Optimization, Multi-Systems Graphing of Sensitivities Inputs: Parameters Costs Incentives MATLABExcel/VBA

PV Additions in SAM Simple efficiency model: multi-radiation level efficiency model - PVWatts with basic battery storage model

Battery Storage Option “Beta”

SAM Simulation Setups Parametric analyses –Ability to assign many values to input variables –Variables values can be linked to track together Excel Exchange Interact with external Excel files “on the fly” New in SAM 2009 Sensitivity analyses (demo) Optimization (demo) Statistical / Uncertainty Multiple Systems

Sensitivity Analysis -Helps determine how sensitive an output metric is to variation in inputs -Results for each sensitivity variable are calculated independently

Uncertainty Analysis -Allows user to specify an uncertainty distribution for input variables and observe the effect on outputs -Next release will incorporate Latin Hypercube Sampling (Sandia) to reduce number of runs needed

Multiple Systems -Aggregates performance results from multiple subsystems and runs a unified financial model -Costs for each subsystem are also combined -Example: PV systems where some modules face east and others south

Links to an External Workbook SAM Inputs “SentTo” Excel 11 “CapturedFrom” National Renewable Energy LaboratoryInnovation for Our Energy Future

SAM User Language (SamUL) User request to be able to run hundreds or thousands of SAM runs (i.e. all TMY3 in US) Scripting language much like VBA but tailored to SAM Documentation and sample files available to help get started.

Graphing

Live Demo! 14 National Renewable Energy LaboratoryInnovation for Our Energy Future

Thank you! 15 National Renewable Energy LaboratoryInnovation for Our Energy Future