CSP World

The Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association (AUSTELA), has performed the adaptation to the Australian market and weather of the NREL's developed System Advisor Model (SAM).

This new tool will be available for free to help researchers, developers and financiers assess the commercial propects of concentrated solar thermal power projects in Australia.

The project has been funded with AUD73,500 from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). "Concentrating solar thermal systems have the potential to play a significant role in future electricity networks as they can store energy, which means clean energy can be dispatched to homes and businesses at anytime of the day or night," said Gary Gray, Minister of Energy. "Through ARENA, the Government is investing in technologies and projects that will increase the use of renewable energy in Australia", "these new tools – which will optimise an industry-leading United States model for Australian conditions – will make it easier for developers and financiers to assess the commercial viability of concentrating solar thermal projects".

Predicting the output of a CSP system is a complex process. Thermal systems include multiple subsystem whose behaviour at any point in time depends not only on the instantaneous conditions the whole system experiences, but also the recent history of its operation. The SAM system, developed by US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), provides information that can help a developer make an assessment of a proposed site's suitability, the economic performance of the system and the financial viability of the project. "This type of analysis is critical to attracting investors and will help pave the way for the energy industry and the finance sector to deploy concentrating solar thermal technologies in Australia," Mr Gray said.

AUSTELA commissioned IT Power Australia to lead the project and work with NREL researchers to adapt the internationally recognised SAM to suit Australian market and weather conditions.Researchers, developers and financiers are encouraged to access the free, Australian-optimised data and user guide which can be used with NREL's SAM via http://www.austela.com.au/sam

ARENA is a $3 billion Government-funded organisation. It is working with industry to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies and increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia.

System Advisor Model

The SAM model is general purpose in nature and can predict hourly, monthly and annual output of CSP, CPV, flat plate PV and also a range of other renewable energy systems. There has been an extensive body of work around its application to CSP systems in particular.

This project has produced three resources for public use:

The “Australian Companion Guide to SAM for Concentrating Solar Power” (pdf).
A collection of SAM project files with financial settings for Australian Conditions (zip).
A selection of solar data files for input to SAM for selected representative Australian sites and years (zip).

The key document from this project is the “Australian Companion Guide to SAM for Concentrating Solar Power”. This guide includes step by step instructions on how to download and use SAM for Australian conditions; open and use the project files and incorporate the solar data files available above.

The processing of downloading and installing SAM is straightforward. The SAM website can be found at: sam.nrel.gov. Downloading the software from sam.nrel.gov/content/downloads is free, but requires the new user to register an account (which is subsequently used for notification of updates etc). The process of downloading and installing SAM is straight forward from that point.

The learning page offers links to various presentations and webinar recordings. Most importantly it has a link to allow download of the SAM help System as PDF Document (sam.nrel.gov/webfm_send/294).

This SAM help system document should be treated as the primary reference source for using SAM and understanding input variables, models, outputs and features in detail. The “Australian Companion Guide to SAM for Concentrating Solar Power” should be read and used in conjunction with this primary reference.