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.