The code (written in C++) is very fast and can automatically take advantage of every processor in a particular Windows or Mac-based operating system. Complex geometries can also translate into longer runtimes. Accuracy increases with the number of ray tracings, but a larger number of rays means more processing time. Because it replicates real photon interactions, the code can provide accurate results for complex systems that would otherwise be unmodelable. Some of these interactions are probabilistic in nature (eg, selecting the sun angle from the solar angular intensity distribution), while other interactions are deterministic (eg, calculating and analyzing the surface described and the resulting redirected light crosses) ). Each ray is tracked by the system when it encounters various optical interactions. The user selects a given amount of light to track. This code uses the Monte Carlo ray tracing method. For more information on contributions, compiling source code and license requirements, see the project website.

NREL welcomes programmers' contributions to the simulation engine or interface and encourages interested parties to participate. On the SolTrace open source project websiteSource code installation. SolTrace can be installed or used in the official NREL packaged distribution. The creation of the code stems from the need to model more complex solar optical systems modeled using existing tools. Although this code is well suited for solar applications, it can also be used to simulate and characterize many general purpose optical systems. SolTrace is a software tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to simulate concentrated solar (CSP) systems and analyze their optical performance.

Soltrace