SAM has been developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, and in collaboration with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP).
This tool is used worldwide for planning and evaluating research and development programs for project costs and performance estimates, as well as for academic research.
SAM make a performance predictions for connection to the solar grid, mini-wind installations, geothermal energy systems and economic estimates of distributed energy and generation plant projects.