Solar ASE: the All-Seeing Eye
In collaboration with Dr. George Young (Penn State Dept. of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science) and our Dr. Vivek Srikrishnan, our team has confirmed the viability of a new form of solar resource monitoring technology: a 5x multipyranometer array trained with an Artificial Neural Network to extract the anisotropy of the solar resource (beam irradiance, diffuse sky irradiance, and ground diffuse irradiance components) for any oriented surface.
The Solar ASE system–where “ASE” has been abbreviated from the All-Seeing Eye (yes, several of us are Tolkien fans…)–greatly reduces measurement errors over standard empirical correlations used throughout the solar industry today, verified in Golden, CO by our team. Existing empirical solar irradiance models that decouple compenents of light will estimate the beam component (or direct) of solar light with 20-30% error from that of true pyherliometer measured data. The tested ASE system offers estimates with <10% error. Under snowy conditions, existing empirical solar irradiance models are even worse, with 48% error, while the ASE still presents 15%.
The ASE system will ultimately be valued to society for solar photovoltaics, agriculture such as grape productivity for wine, and smart building controls. In addition by substituting the ASE for pyrheliometer devices, we hope to reduce systems costs by an order of magnitude, from $20,000-$30,000 per system to well below $1000. All efforts have been made to embrace an open-source approach to developing the ASE system, in order to maximize the viral dispersion of such an important and transformative technology. Both Undergraduates and Graduate students have been involved in the next stage of deployment, supported by the 2015 PSIEE Seed Grant funds.
Frey Brownson, PhD
Jeffrey Brownson (Frey) is a queer solar expert, visual artist, Penn State professor, and industry consultant. Haunting the halls of academia. Partner, Queer Dad, Enby Artist, Photon Wrangler.
Big Fab Solar Collab Graduates
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Community Solar
Solar is people. (not a Soylent Green reference)
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The Big Fab Solar Collab is a feminist anti-colonial collective that works with colleagues, students, and community members to explore Solar Ecology and social change. Interested? We welcome you too.
Collab Research Overview
We make stuff happen, building something out of nothing, and giving it away. We are a collective group of creative and dedicated students, staff, and a few faculty that are looking to disrupt what it means to do solar!”
Solar Ecology is Farming
Re-configuring the boundaries of energy conversion for the entangled present, solar ecology affects and is affecting our naturecultures as farming.
The Solar Genome Project
The Solar Genome Project (SGP) is a solar non-profit registered in PA (501c3 pending), and functions as an applied extension of the Solar Ecology Program of research.
Solar Resource Measures
We measure what we value. We value what we measure.