[Bldg-sim] TMY3 Released with 1020 US Locations

[Jason Glazer]

NREL Releases Updated Typical Meteorological Year Data Set
May 1, 2008

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy 
Laboratory (NREL) today released an updated typical 
meteorological year (TMY) data set derived from the 
1991-2005 National Solar Radiation Data Base update. The 
TMY3 data and user’s manual are available at

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1991-2005/tmy3

The new data sets update and expand the TMY2 data sets 
released by NREL in 1994. The TMY3 data sets provide greater 
geographical coverage than previous TMY sets with 
information on 1,020 locations in the United States, project 
leader Steve Wilcox said. Only 239 locations were listed in 
the TMY2 data set.

A TMY data set contains typical meteorological values for 
specific locations. TMY data sets are widely used by 
building designers and others for modeling renewable energy 
conversion systems. Although not designed to show 
meteorological extremes, TMY data sets hold hourly values of 
solar radiation and meteorological elements for a one-year 
period that typify climate based on a much longer period of 
time.

Unless they are revised, computer programs designed for 
previous TMY data sets will not work with TMY3 data. NREL 
provides a software utility that allows reformatting of the 
TMY3 data to the TMY2 format at the TMY3 link above.

The TMY3 data sets and the users manual were produced by 
NREL's Electric and Systems Center under the Solar Resource 
Characterization Project, which is funded and monitored by 
DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national 
laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency 
research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by 
Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.

For further information contact NREL Public Relations at 
(303) 275-4090.


-- 
Jason Glazer, P.E., GARD Analytics, 90.1 ECB chair
Admin of BLDG-SIM list for building simulation users