SAM, also known as the System Advisory Model, is a comprehensive solar technology systems analysis model. This is the first update since 2009 and the new, improved model offers a variety of enhanced features including:
New Utility Scale Financing Options
The new options The new financing options make it possible to do dramatically more detailed utility-scale financial analysis than was possible with previous versions.
CEC PV Module Model Mounting Options
Based on research done for the SAM team by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, new mounting options in the CEC PV module model have been incorporated that account for the impact on cell temperature of different mounting types, such as open racks, gap mounting, and BIPV.
Improved PV Cost Details
The PV System Costs page now has options for specifying balance of system costs as fixed, cost per unit of system nameplate capacity, or cost per unit of module area. New stacked bar graphs are also available to show the cost breakdown for the real LCOE, the nominal LCOE and installed cost per Watt.
Geothermal Power Model
SAM now models small coproduction geothermal power plants in addition to large plants. This allows for calculating the value of co-producing geothermal power at the site of an oil or gas well.
Utility Scale Wind Model
The hourly small-scale wind model has been extended to work for utility-scale projects. We plan to offer this model with utility-scale wind data from 3Tier, downloadable directly from SAM. As of this Beta release, the web service is not yet publicly available, but we included the capability in the interface for your review.
There are quite a few other changes. To download the updated version of the model, visit the NREL’s download page.
Why use the model?
Use of the SAM software – together with technology and cost benchmarking, market penetration analysis, and other relevant considerations – supports development of program priorities and direction, and the subsequent investment needed to support solar R&D activities.
But, most important, it promotes the use of a consistent methodology for analysis across all solar technologies, including financing and cost assumptions.
