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Photovoltaics Since 2000, the UO SRML has monitored photovoltaic (PV) systems as well as solar radiation at a number of locations. This page brings together the PV information available on our Website. From here, you can visit pages containing: PV shade analysis forms, contour plots showing PV performance versus tilt and orientation, and a downloadable Excel Add-in that calculates solar angles and estimates PV system performance.
Measurements taken of solar
electric systems and information about the PV systems monitored
are found on the PV data page. Analysis of PV system
performance is available on the PV system analysis page
or in papers published on PV system performance. | |||
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For more information | |||
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Shade analysis forms, used
to help find the best (least shaded) location for solar electric systems,
and to better estimate the annual system output, are available for these
Oregon cities: Astoria, Burns, Eugene, Medford, North Bend, Pendleton, Portland, Redmond,
and Salem. | |||
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Contour plots showing the effect of tilt and
orientation on annual solar electric system perfomance are available
on this page for Astoria, Burns, Eugene, Medford, North Bend, Pendleton, Portland,
Redmond, and Salem. | |||
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The photovoltaic
performance calculator, PVWatts, is located on NREL's Web
site. It calculates typical performance of solar electric arrays for more than
200 locations in the National Solar Radiation Database, given the
system peak output and orientation. | |||
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Because actual PV performance will vary
from year to year, we have created an Excel Add-in version of
PVWatts that works with files formatted like UO SRML database files.
You may download this
program as shareware.
For users of Typical Meteorological Year (TMY2) data
files for sites in the National Solar Radiation Data Base, parsed tab seperated ASCII
files have been created that are consistent with the UO SRML format. | |||
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Information
about the instruments used to collect solar radiation data, and about our monitoring
stations, as well as access to the irradiance and PV performance data, is available
in the solar data section of this site.
A list of components that make up the PV systems being monitored can be found on the
PV data page. Analysis of PV system
performance is available on the PV system analysis page
or in papers published on PV system performance. |
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Our
data plotting program graphically
depicts selected data, allowing you to see at a glance how irradiance
values, solar cell performance, or meteorological readings varied on
particular days at specified monitoring stations. You can also
go to our monitoring stations page and select the
PV system of interest to see a graph of the latest analyzed data
from that station. | |||
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In the section devoted to
educational material, there are solar electric lesson
plans describing how solar cells and photovoltaic systems
work. Also, see our newsletters page, where more recent
issues of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association's newsletter,
Solar Rising, often contain articles and pictures concerning PV
systems. | |||
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Further
information on solar radiation modeling is available in our Solar Radiation
Data book and other publications on our Web site. |
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 © 2006, UO Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory. Last
revised: November 10, 2006.
Home page URL: solardat.uoregon.edu |