KRC Director Jay Meldrum and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) were quoted on the effects of snow on solar energy systems in Solar International–a PV Management Magazine
http://www.solar-international.net/article/78589-Snowy-solar.php
From Tech Today.
Snowy Solar
“We do predictions on behalf of commercial lenders being asked to foot the bill for big solar arrays,” said Townsend. Good data “makes them more financeable.” Eventually, the study results will be publicly available through the KRC website and through solar energy simulation programs provided by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“Everybody who wants to develop solar energy in snowy climates on a large scale will need this data,” said Joshua Pearce, an associate professor of materials science and engineering/electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech, who is participating in the project. “In the olden days, you’d only see solar farms in places like Arizona, and Spain. Now, large solar installations are found throughout the northern US and Canada.”
Read more at Solar International.
Solar Researchers Dig Deeper Into Snow Issue
Being way up on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, snow is something Michigan Tech folks know well – last winter some 225 inches fell at the research center – and the scientists there have been studying the snow/PV relationship for a while.
Read more at Earth Techling, by Pete Danko.
In the News
The story about the KRC snow study on photovoltaic performance was published by the Associated Press and has been widely covered in the media including the Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer, Seattle PI, Fox Detroit, Houston Chronicle, The Republic (Indiana), KTVU San Francisco, Detroit News, Oakland Press, Michigan Radio (NPR) and many more.
From Tech Today.
In the News
The Mining Journal in Marquette published an editorial about Michigan Tech’s study of the effectiveness of solar panels in snow climates. It was picked up by Associated Press wire service in a roundup of editorials of interest and republished by the Escanaba Daily Press, among other news outlets.
From Tech Today.
MTU solar energy study should produce usable results
We’ll be interested, along with a great many people, we suspect, to see results of a study launched by Michigan Tech University in Houghton recently to determine if and to what degree snow affects solar panels.
Read more at the Mining Journal.