This self-paced online training from RMI’s Energy Transition Academy (ETA) is on modeling power systems using NREL’s System Advisor Model (SAM). The target audience for this course is ETA fellows from African and island nations. SAM is a free software developed by U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It includes performance and financial models for different kinds of renewable energy systems and financial structures.
Lesson 1 is a high-level introduction to SAM designed to orient the audience to SAM’s capabilities. It is suitable as an introduction to the complete course, or as a standalone session.
Lessons 2, 3 and 4 provide general information about SAM and serve as an initial introduction to the software. These sessions should help the audience understand what kind of data SAM requires as input and provide an inital familiarization with the user interface.
Lessons 5 – 8 walk through the steps required to develop a full model, analyze the results, and revise inputs. These sessions elaborate in more detail the initial introductions in Lessons 2-4.
