NREL and Private Industry Begin Nationwide Solar
Measuring Network
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and
IBERDROLA RENEWABLES have jointly deployed the first of several solar
resource measuring stations as part of a planned instrumentation network
throughout the United States.
The stations, located across Arizona, are part of NREL's Solar Resource and
Meteorological Assessment Project (SOLRMAP), a collaboration between the
national laboratory and the energy industry to collect precise, long-term
solar resource measurements. The information will be incorporated into
technical analyses that seek to minimize the risk of launching commercial
solar energy conversion projects, including concentrated solar power plants.
The inaugural measurement station was installed by NREL and IBERDROLA
RENEWABLES using an Irradiance Inc. rotating shadowband radiometer for
global, direct, and diffuse solar measurements. The radiometers will record
strength and consistency of the sunlight at the station locations, and will
collect wind and temperature measurements.
“The project is a win-win collaboration between NREL and industry to
optimize the quality of solar resource data used to evaluate the viability
of large-scale projects in the southwest U.S.,” said Steve Wilcox, a senior
scientist with NREL's Solar Radiation research program, and the Laboratory’s
lead in the SOLRMAP collaboration.
“SOLRMAP supports the solar industry as a whole by providing NREL a broader
database by which to improve solar resource models,” Wilcox said.
“Our expertise as one of the nation’s leading wind power project developers
has uniquely prepared us to responsibly develop renewable technologies of
various types,
including solar,” said Martin Mugica, IBERDROLA RENEWABLES’ senior vice
president of renewables. “We are pleased to work closely with NREL as we
take this important step to develop solar technology solutions.”
NREL will combine the SOLRMAP data with information at existing regional
solar radiation networks to upgrade models supporting a database of 10-km
resolution solar resource data across the United States. The data collected
will be used by NREL researchers and analysts to sharpen solar modeling,
solar resource forecasting, and database development. The data must
accurately represent the spatial (geographic) and temporal (hourly, daily,
and seasonal), and spectral (wavelength distribution) variability of the
solar radiation resource at different locations.
SOLRMAP industry partners provide funding for instruments, maintenance, and
station operations. NREL provides expertise for station design, instrument
selection, data acquisition, quality procedures, data analysis,
calibrations, and data distribution. NREL is working with several other
companies to install SOLRMAP stations and in the near future hopes to open
the project to even more participants planning concentrating solar power
plants.
IBERDROLA RENEWABLES is currently the world’s leading provider of wind power
with 8,500 MW of wind power in operation globally now, plus over 600 MW of
clean gas-fired generation and over 50 BCF of gas storage in the US and
Canada. www.iberdrolarenewables.us.
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 The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. |