In this video, we will set up a new project in SAM and define the geographic location and weather data file for our parabolic trough plant.

To set up a new project in SAM, we click on the button Start a new project on the start screen and then select the appropriate technology and financial model. In our case, we select the technology parabolic trough empirical located in the drop-down menu in the section Concentrating solar power. For the financial model, we select Commercial owner in the section Distributed and finally we confirm with OK.

After the project is created, we land on the first subpage location and resource. In the left part of the window, you can see all the subpages where the details and input parameters of the project can be defined. The subpages are thematically divided, for instance, into the technical components and financial constraints of the parabolic trough plant.

On the first page, location and resource, the geographical coordinates and the weather data file including the solar irradiation data for the location of the plant are defined. Here, on the top of the window, is a list of geographic locations which are provided by SAM by default.

To select one site, just click on the corresponding entry in the table. The location including all underlying weather and solar irradiation data is then loaded into the current project. Datasets for other geographic locations beside the default options can be used by importing individual files into SAM in a supported file format.

On the SAM website, there is a list of various sources that provide weather and solar irradiation data which is compatible with the software. There are both free and paid services available to gather the datasets for specific locations.

The requirements for the weather and solar irradiation data are shown on this slide. Data with hourly resolution over the course of a year is required. This allows SAM to calculate the operating performance of the system with hourly resolution over the course of a year.

In practice, the weather data for the simulation can be collected with the help of a weather station at the specific site and by using satellite measurements, for instance to determine the solar irradiation. It is recommended to use average data measured over a period of several years. The direct normal irradiation, or DNI, is one very important input value for our simulation of the PTC

plant as it provides the fraction of solar radiation that can be used by the parabolic trough collectors. An example curve of annual DNI data for the city of Fargo in the United States is shown on the right.

A drop of the DNI during the nighttime hours is noticeable and high DNI values generally occur more frequently during the summer months. In addition to DNI data, the ambient temperature, humidity and wind speed also play a role for the operation of the PTC plant and are included in the weather data file for SAM.

In our example project, we select the default location of Fargo in the United States for our parabolic trough plant. Simply click on the entry in the table to set the location. SAM provides the option to view the weather data of the set location by clicking on the button View data below.

A sub-window opens and provides several options in the top menu bar. Click on the button Statistics to show, for instance, the average, minimum and maximum values for certain weatherly related parameters over the year. Here you can see that the maximum DNI for the location Fargo has a value of 982 watts per square meter.

By selecting the first three buttons in the top menu bar, it is also possible to plot selected parameters with hourly, daily or monthly resolution over the period of the year. On the right side you see two plots of the DNI, ones with hourly and ones with monthly resolution.

To create a plot, just tick the checkbox of the desired parameter in the legend on the right. The second checkbox provides the option to create a second diagram. This is particularly useful to show multiple parameters with different units which cannot be displayed in the same diagram.

Now our location and weather data file is set up for the project. This is a good time to save your project file. You can save by clicking on the field file located in the top left corner of the main window and then selecting Save.

In the next lesson we will characterize our solar field in SAM. So I hope to see you again in the next video.