SolTrace™ (Optical Analysis Software) [SWR-26-065 and SWR-01-45]
Timothy J. Wendelin, Jorgensen, Gary · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2019
SolTrace™ is a software tool developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to model concentrating solar power (CSP) systems and analyze their optical performance. Although ideally suited for solar applications, the code can also be used to model and characterize many general optical systems. The creation of the code evolved out of a need to model more complex solar optical systems than could be modeled with existing tools. SolTrace can be installed either using the official NREL packaged distribution or from source code at the SolTrace open source project website. NREL welcomes contributions from programmers to the simulation engine or to the interface and encourages interested persons to get involved. More information on contributing, compiling the source code, and license requirements is available on the project website.(https://www.nrel.gov/csp/soltrace.html). For details on integration with SAM, see the SAM website. (https://sam.nrel.gov/)