Solar PV

The SolarPySAM module uses PySAM package for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s System Advisor Model (SAM) to predict the power output of the solar PV plant. This module uses the Detailed Photovoltaic model in pvsamv1 to calculate PV electrical output using separate module and inverter models.

Inputs

SolarPySAM requires two input files:

1. A CSV file that specifies the weather conditions (e.g. NonAnnualSimulation-sample_data-interpolated-daytime.csv). This file should include:

   • timestamp

   • direct normal irradiance (DNI)

   • diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI)

   • global horizontal irradiance (GHI)

   • wind speed

   • air temperature (dry bulb temperature)

2. A JSON file that specifies the PV plant system design (e.g. 100MW_1axis_pvsamv1.json). The system location (latitude, longitude, and elevation) is specified in the input yaml file.

The example folder 07_floris_standin_and_solar_pysam specifies:

• weather conditions on May 10, 2018 (from this PySAM example)

• latitude, longitude, and elevation of Golden, CO

• system design information for a 100 MW single-axis PV tracking system generated using the SAM GUI These inputs can be changed in the .yaml, .json, and .csv files.

Outputs

The SolarPySAM module outputs the AC power (power_mw) and the net DC power (dc_power_mw) in MW of the PV plant at each timestep, as well as the angle of incidence (aoi).

References

PySAM. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Golden, CO. nrel/pysam