Votey Roof Solar Tracker Test Facility

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…

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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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