Votey Roof Solar Tracker Test Facility Presented by: Tony Lauzon & Alex Hilshey A SEED project by: Gabrielle DaGama, Shane Bluto, Jack Christoforo, Tony Lauzon, & Lawrence Thurber Under guidance of Paul Hines, Ph.D. Funded by the Clean Energy Fund With direction from Mieko Ozeki – Office of Sustainability
NY City, Nov. 9, 1965 © Bob Gomel, Life
Project Goals • Design, fabricate and install solar panel tracker laboratory on Votey Hall roof • Design a web-based & physical kiosk and display: • Compare net energy production of solar trackers • Compare building consumption with solar production
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Solar Tracker Overview
• Fixed Axis • 1-Dimensional Axis Tracker • 2-Dimensional Axis Tracker 3
Solar Trackers • 1-Dimensional Axis Tracker • 2-Dimensional Axis Tracker
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Solar Tracker Work in Progress • Design and Fabricate Tracking System • 1-D • Slewing gear
• 2-D • Slewing gear • Linear actuator
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Solar Tracker Progress • Solar Mounts Designed, Fabricated, and Installed • Electrical Grid Connection Designed and Installed • Base Solar Hardware Selected and Purchased • -PV Panels • -Micro-Inverters • -Data Controller 6
Solar Tracker Work in Progress • Design Solar Tracker Controller (How do we actually track the sun?) • Open-loop system using MATLAB algorithm
• Closed-loop system using light-dependent resistors
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Solar Tracker Work in Progress • How do you know panel performance? • Design Data Acquisition System
• We collect data and process it locally • current sense circuit • Voltage sense circuit
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Data Kiosk and Display • We’ve generated clean energy from the sun. Now what? • Energy production data collected by our own sensors, stored locally, then accessed via web and displayed at kiosk
• What else does the kiosk display? • Energy consumption of Votey (Smart Meter) • Perform meaningful calculations to give user a qualitative understanding of Votey energy production/consumption
• What might it look like… 9
Davis Center Energy Consumption Kiosk
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Summary • 3 solar panels on the roof • Fixed mount • 1D Tracker • 2D Tracker
• Votey energy management (Smart Meter) • Data collection (& storage) • Interactive Kiosk and Display
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Special Thanks… • Mieko Ozeki • Paul Hines
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