Help revisions for SAM 2024.12.12

[cpaulgilman]

To review, spot check functionality (input page matched to correct Help topic, broken links, etc.), and review content for any topics you have interest in or made a change that required a Help revision.

Let me know of any comments so I can make changes in the source database (which is not on GitHub). Please do not directly edit Help HTML files directly -- any changes will be overwritten the next time I generate Help from the source database.

Revision List

Grid limits do not affect electricity imports from the grid.

Revise IPH molten salt linear Fresnel topics

Power tower heliostast pivot point height definition.

New Financial Parameters topic for LCOH Calculator.

Wind wake loss inputs NREL/ssc#1186

Annual energy and monthly energy label updates: NREL/ssc#1236

Replace parentheses with commas for installation cost units

Battery availability loss. NREL/ssc#1241

Tidal Energy Converter page revisions for new options, see #1807.

New net billing with carryover options. NREL/ssc#1200

IPH MSLF revisions: #1444

Fix fuel cell model link https://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/fuel-cell-power-model.html, replace with https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/57457.pdf.

PV GCR affects output for bifacial modules.

Revise report generator topic to explain template not available for some configurations.

Add topics for IPH financial models

Generic system to custom generatio profile

Standalone battery time step

New autographs and default graphs for battery configurations: #1884

System Availability three hour option for marine, "hourly" to "time series"

October 24, 2024

Update Cambium note about years for Cambium 2023

Battery dispatch (BTM and FOM) battery can charge from grid-limited system power

Grid limits battery can charge from grid-limited system power

Project with 100% debt results in IRR = NaN

Revise real discount rate description

Geothermal system availability losses

Revise metrics topics to facilitate navigation.

Revise weather file format to include CSV for wind

Revise PV subhourly clipping "Allen method"

Revise Cost of Acquiring Financing.

Type of change

Please delete options that are not relevant.

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• This change requires a documentation update
• This change modifies variables in existing compute modules. Please see Checking for PySAM Incompatible API Changes.
• This change requires updating the PySAM files via export_config. Please see When do the PySAM files need to be regenerated?

Checklist:

If you have added a new compute module in a SSC pull request related to this one, be sure to check the Process Requirements.

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules
• I have checked my code and corrected any misspellings

[sjanzou]

Spot check looked good for the stuff I worked on...
I merged the latest develop branch updates and the latest default configuration results to get the GitHub Actions passing.
Thanks for the detailed help - as always!

[janinefreeman]

As usual, the Help system is amazing and so helpful!!!

Spot checked a bunch of places and things I worked on-

Found two small updates on the Introduction-> performance models page:

Second one is further below, "custom generation pvwatts wind fuel cell battery" still refers to Generic in the actual text.

Another place that may need an update (and, possibly needs addition of what standalone battery does for peak shaving?)
-> Note that I think this is actually the Battery Storage-> Battery Dispatch pages, but these are linked from fuel cell as well

Same comment under PV Smoothing algorithm description on that page, and a few other places on the same page (if you search "Generic" you'll find them).

Lastly the Degradation page still mentions Generic and Generic Battery.

[taylorbrown75]

Thank you for all your help with the CSP/IPH documentation. All of the links are working for me, and I made a few comments on the IPH MSLF page.

[taylorbrown75]

• Power block should heat sink here

• There are two header pipe roughness definitions, I think we can delete the second one

• These labels are bolded or the font is larger than the other labels

• Rather than auxiliary fossil backup heat, I think we want to say 'Auxiliary electric backup heat' because we no longer consider it fossil backup.
• 'prevent water from freezing' -> 'prevent field HTF from freezing'
• 'actual freezing point of water' -> actual freezing point of the field HTF

• This section is also in the system design help page, do we want to include it here too?

[cpaulgilman]

@taylorbrown75 Thanks -- I'll incorporate your comments either in the final pre-release build, or in Patch 1.