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A few months ago I was able to download TMY3 data from NSRDB and use it with pvlib.tmy.readtmy3

Now I have tried to download files for other locations but these seem to come in a different format. I am using NSRDB Data Viewer, more specifically the Data Download Wizard. I click on MTS2, as this seems to be the only model that now provides data in TMY3, and I click on the TMY3 button when I select the file for download. But the internal structure of the obtained CSV file is clearly different from what I got a few months ago and is also clearly different from what pvlib.tmy.readtmy3 expects (I have checked the current python source code).

At https://nsrdb.nrel.gov/tmy I get the following info:

Format of TMY Data

All TMY data are now in the System Advisor Model (SAM) CSV file format. Formerly, TMY data were available only through TMY file formats (i.e., TMY, TMY2, TMY3). By switching to the more user-friendly SAM CSV, TMY data are more flexible than ever and can be plugged into the vast majority of solar modeling programs.

This seems to imply that data is no longer available in TMY3 format, even though TMY3 data seems to be available in the NSRDB Data Download Wizard.

Do I need to write my own code to adapt NSRDB files to what pvlib expects?

Trooper Z
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Ripalda
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1 Answers1

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The TMY3 files available at the link below are readable by pvlib:

https://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1991-2005/tmy3/by_state_and_city.html

I'm not experienced with the NSRDB Data Viewer or how the format of its TMY3 files might differ. We'd welcome a contribution to improve compatibility with the new files, if necessary.

Will Holmgren
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  • Fantastic. Thank you so much! – Ripalda Dec 05 '18 at 19:33
  • I'd anticipate that website will go away at some point, since NREL is moving towards delivering the NSRDB and TMY via https://nsrdb.nrel.gov/tmy. Probably should plan to add a `readSAM` function to pvlib that handles the SAM weather data format. – Cliff H Dec 06 '18 at 22:17
  • Busted link, any other options? – elPastor Sep 21 '20 at 17:19
  • See discussion here: https://github.com/pvlib/pvlib-python/issues/996#issuecomment-651319586. "Per some emails with the NSRDB team, the old individual-file URLs are no more, but the original data TMY3 files are available through that large (~4GB) zipfile at https://nsrdb.nrel.gov/data-sets/archives.html." – Will Holmgren Sep 22 '20 at 21:43