Modeling Power Towers in SAM

Mike Wagner of NREL provides an overview of how to use SAM to model concentrating solar power tower systems with SolarPILOT for automatic field layout and optimization.

[@majdzghieb5333]

thank you mike .....

[@3li3li3li]

What parameters should I tune to to control the dispatch profile? I'm trying the flatten the power production of a CSP system using thermal storage. Many thanks!

[@ArvindSastry]

HI! i did not understand the discussion about the solar Multiple at 33:15, when should the solar Multiple be less than 1? Are there any plants with a SM less than 1? Thank you!

[@bernardbayangbe2745]

Hi everyone, I would like to see how to import correctly field layout in order to investigate optical efficiency in SolarPilot or SAM? Is SAM appropriate to analyze small tower (100 kWe) ? Thanks

[@SAMDemoVideos]

SAM's power tower and other CSP models were designed with large projects (~100 MW). Although there is no limit on the size of the system, some of the internal algorithms may not work well for smaller systems. Please post questions about SAM on the SAM forum at sam.nrel.gov/forum.

[@ArvindSastry]

Hi, another question I have is regarding the Design DNI! Could the design DNI be the maximum of the of 8760 hourly design values? Thank you!

[@SAMDemoVideos]

Arvind Sastry Hi Arvind -- Please post your questions about SAM on the SAM Support forum, which we monitor daily: sam.nrel.gov/support. You are more likely to get a quick response there. Mike gives an example of a situation where you might use a solar multiple less than one around 34:15. I don't know if there are any installed systems designed that way, but it is a reasonable modeling scenario to explore in SAM.

[@ArvindSastry]

HI, thank you for the clarification! will ask questions on the SAM support forum!