Choosing the Technology and Market

The Technology and Market window allows you to choose the technology and financing option for a new project, or to modify the options for the current case. The technology options determine whether the project is based on a photovoltaic, concentrating solar power, generic fossil-fuel system. For each technology option, a different set of financing options is available. Solar Advisor displays a different set of input pages and variables based on the options defined on the Technology and Market window.

Note. Only the Photovoltaics, Concentrating Solar Power, and Generic Fossil technology options are implemented in the current version of Solar Advisor. Future versions will include Solar Heating and Lighting and other technologies.

If you are starting a new project, you should open a sample template that most closely resembles the configuration you are modeling instead of changing options in the Technology and Market window. Starting from a sample template helps to ensure that the values of input variables are reasonable for a given combination of technology and market. This is important because, due to the large number of input variables in the model, most analyses will depend on using default values for at least some of the variables.

To choose or modify technology and financing options:

1.	Open the Technology and Market window:

If you are working in an existing file, click Select Technology and Market.

SS_Main-SelectTechnologyMarketButton

If you are starting from a new file, click New Project on the File menu.

2.	In the Technology and Market window, select a technology and financing option. See the tables below for descriptions of the options.

3.	Check Reset to Tech/Market-specific default inputs to populate variables on the input pages with the default values used in sample templates. This will replace any values that may have been saved in previous model runs and is the default option.

Clear Reset to Tech/Market-specific default inputs to use values stored from previous model runs. This is useful if you are switching between technologies and want to revert to input values that you saved in an earlier analysis.

4.	Click OK to return to the main window. Solar Advisor displays the technology and market option in brackets for your reference.

SS_Main-TechMarketStatus

The following tables describe the options available in the Technology and Market window.

Table 4. Technology options.

Technology

Description

Options

Photovoltaics

Systems that convert sunlight into electricity, based either on flat-plate photovoltaic modules or concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) modules.

•	SAM Performance Models allows you to choose from four module performance models and two inverter performance models.

•	PVWatts Performance Model replicates NREL's web-based PVWatts model.

Concentrating Solar Power

Systems that convert concentrated solar radiation to thermal energy for use in a conventional steam generation plant.

•	Parabolic Trough System models a field of parabolic trough collectors driving a power block with or without storage and fossil backup.

•	Power Tower System (central receiver systems) models a field of heliostats that focus light on a central, tower-mounted receiver and drive a power cycle with or without storage.

•	Dish Stirling System models a field of dish-shaped collectors, each equipped with a dish-Stirling engine that converts solar energy into electricity.

Generic Fossil

Systems that convert a fossil fuel into electricity.

This simple model allows you to compare the energy costs of a fossil fuel based system with those of solar technologies using a consistent set of financial assumptions.

Table 5. Financing options.

Financing Option

Description

Available for:

Residential Market

Small-scale projects, usually developed or owned by a residential homeowner and financed through a loan or mortgage with no depreciation tax deductions or investment return constraints. Residential projects may or may not benefit from tax credits or payment incentives, and may sell electricity at either a flat annual rate or based on a time-of-use pricing schedule.

•	All photovoltaic technology options

•	Generic fossil system

Commercial Market

Projects that qualify for a depreciation deduction under U.S. federal tax code and may be financed through:

•	Cash, where the total installation cost is incurred in year zero of the cash flow.

•	Loan, where a portion of the installation cost is incurred in year zero, and the rest is spread over the analysis period, with annual capital and interest payments.

•	Third-party ownership financing, where the project is financed through a loan and must meet a minimum internal rate of return target.

Commercial projects may or may not benefit from tax credits or payment incentives, and may sell electricity at either a flat annual rate or based on a time-of-use pricing schedule.

•	All photovoltaic technology options

•	Dish-Stirling system

•	Generic fossil system

Utility and IPP

Revenue-earning power generation projects financed through a loan, and sell electricity through a power purchase agreement with a fixed electricity sales price. Utility projects must meet minimum debt service coverage ratio and internal rate of return targets.

•	All options

No Financials

This option is for analyses of system performance that do not involve cost or financial modeling.

•	All options, except power tower system

For some comparative analyses, it may be useful to change the technology or market options:

•

To compare projects based on the same set of technology assumptions but using a different set of financing options. For example, to compare a 3 kW residential photovoltaic system with a 3 kW commercial photovoltaic system, you might start with the Residential Flat Plate System case from the Sample PV Systems template, modify input variables as needed to define a 3 kW system, and then create a copy of the case and change the market option to Commerical - Standard Loan. That would create two cases with the same set of technology assumptions, but with different financing options.

•

To compare projects that use the same set of financial assumptions but use a different technology. For example, to compare a utility-scale photovoltaic system to a utility-scale parabolic trough system, you might start with a case from the Sample Parabolic Troughs template and change the technology option to a photovoltiac option to preserve the financial options from the trough template.

Whenever you make changes in the Technology and Market window, verify the variables on each input page to make sure that they are appropriate for your analysis.