Page • To maintain U.S. competitiveness, the DOE recognizes that more must be done to help companies developing new technologies cross the second “Valley of Death”—the lack of capital resources required to demonstrate the large-scale manufacturing and economic viability and reliability (or “bankability”) of a particular technology pathway. Founded in 2012, the...
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Albuquerque, New Mexico
Page • New Mexico RTC at Sandia National Laboratories New Mexico RTC Fact Sheet The NM RTC has two PV deployment areas available for RTC systems. The first is intended for larger sized systems (>50kW) and the second for smaller systems (5-50 kW). Located at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility on...
Background
Page • A SunShot Initiative In 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program (now SunShot) established five Regional Test Centers (RTCs) across the United States to independently validate the performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) concentrated PV (CPV) systems. These test centers, which are under the technical oversight...
Burlington Free Press: New research center aims to energize solar business in the US
Post, November 7, 2013 • Williston center, one of 5 in country, expected to be operational within next few months WILLISTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., looked on the bright side of Monday’s finger-numbing cold weather at the announcement of a federal solar panel test center coming to Chittenden County. “There’s sun out there to dispel any...
Cocoa, Florida
Page • RTC at the Florida Solar Energy Center Florida RTC Fact Sheet The Florida Solar Energy Center, a division of the University of Central Florida, has been researching and testing PV technology for over 20 years. They have a strong partnership with the national labs in providing research and testing services. The...
Commercial & Industry Partners
Page • Partnering with the U.S. Solar Industry The RTCs welcome PV system designers and module manufacturers interested in increasing the bankability of their products at reduced cost. Each RTC will work closely with its partners to develop testing and monitoring protocols and to conduct a cost-benefit analysis that will balance monitoring...
Craig Carmignani
Staff Page • RTC Monitoring & Communications Co-Lead (Sandia). Biography Mr. Carmignani is a distinguished technologist at Sandia, with expertise in systems instrumentation, including design and calibration, needed to ensure high-fidelity data monitoring and communications.
Current Test Centers
Page • Overview Two of the current regional test centers (New Mexico and Colorado) are under the direct oversight of Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the remaining centers, Florida, MI (under development), and Nevada are managed as a partnership between Sandia and the local host institution. Each site is climatically distinct...
Dan Riley
Staff Page • RTC Monitoring & Communications Co-Lead (Sandia). Biography Mr. Riley is a senior member of the Sandia technical staff and responsible for data quality across the RTC sites. His areas of research interest include module degradation and PV characterization and modeling.
Dr. Bruce King
Staff Page • Technical Lead for PV Proving Grounds (Sandia). Biography Dr. King is Principal Investigator for Sandia’s PV Proving Grounds research initiative, which includes the RTC program. Dr. King is also the technical lead for Sandia’s Photovoltaic Systems Engineering Laboratory and oversees the baseline characterization studies that are integral to the RTC validation...
Dr. Chris Deline
Staff Page • Technical Lead for the CO RTC (National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Biography Dr. Deline is an NREL engineer and technical lead for the Colorado RTC, which is located on NREL’s campus. He specializes in the characterization, modeling and analysis of modules, especially under non-optimal (e.g., shaded) conditions.
Dr. Joshua Stein
Staff Page • PV Analyst and Consultant to the RTC program. Biography Dr. Stein is a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia and the author of many papers related to the performance modeling of solar systems.
Dr. Laurie Burnha
Staff Page • Lead for RTC Program (Sandia). Biography Dr. Burnham is the Technical Lead for the RTC program, and Principal Investigator on several projects related to the impact of climate on PV performance.
Future UCF solar panel research center may spur business
Post, February 8, 2013 • Future UCF solar panel research center may spur business Orlando Business Journal, February 3, 2012 “because manufacturers would want to be near where the latest technology is being tested and validated,” said James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center and one of the key players behind the planned center....
Golden, Colorado
Page • Colorado RTC at National Renewable Energy Laboratory Colorado RTC Fact SheetManaged by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), this eight-acre RTC site has 1 MW DC capacity and is located at the SolarTAC facility (near Denver International Airport). SolarTAC, which has a steppe (i.e., arid, high altitude) climate, is already home...
HelioVolt: Leveraging Test Centers to Validate System Performance
Post, July 29, 2013 • They may be small in size, but the 5-kilowatt HelioVolt solar installations recently deployed at three DOE Regional Test Centers (RTCs) represent a big step for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. As the first three PV arrays to be tested under the SunShot Technical Assistance program, these solar energy systems kick-start a multi-year...
Henderson, Nevada
Page • Nevada RTC Nevada Regional Test Center for Solar Research and Education Fact SheetThe Nevada RTC site is located in the city of Henderson, on land occupied by the River Mountains Water Treatment Facility, which is operated by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Soitec installed an 84-kW concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system at...
Jim Stephens
Staff Page • Project Manager. Biography Mr. Stephens is Project Manager for the RTC Program, with over 20 years’ experience in Program/Project Management.
Monitoring and Instrumentation
Page • Managed by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the RTCs are predicated on technical excellence. To ensure consistency across the five RTC sites, the RTC team has designed state-of the-art monitoring and data-acquisition systems. In addition, each site has an identically configured meteorological station (see details...
Norwich Technologies and the VT RTC Featured in TV News Story
Post, February 29, 2016 • In December 2015, Norwich Technologies hoisted by crane a 5.3kW photovoltaic (PV) system onto a roof at the Vermont Regional Test Center (RTC)—a test center funded by DOE and managed by Sandia that focuses on PV performance data and supports collaborative research on integrating of PVs into Vermont’s electrical grid....
Prism Solar Bifacial System Installed at the NM RTC
Post, February 29, 2016 • New bifacial photovoltaic (PV) cell technology makes it possible to harvest sunlight from both sides of a PV module, resulting in significant energy gains at future larger production scales with minimal cost increases. Sandia recently installed a bifacial solar PV system, built by Prism Solar, at the New Mexico Regional...
RTC Fact Sheets
Page • These fact sheets offer details about the RTC program, partnering with the RTCs, and each individual center. All files are in Adobe PDF (get Adobe Reader). RTC OVERVIEW FACT SHEETS The US DOE Regional Test Center Program – overview of the RTC program Technical Capabilities – details about the RTC monitoring systems and meteorological...
Sandia Lab building solar test centers across US
Post, February 8, 2013 • “With the trend in the solar industry toward larger systems and greater capital investment – substantial amounts of money are going into this field – the financial community is increasingly scrutinizing how well these systems operate,” said Charles Hanley, manager of Photovoltaic and Distributed Systems Integration at Sandia. “The RTCs...
Sandia Labs tapped again to lead national solar evaluation centers
Post, May 9, 2016 • Solar engineer Joshua Stein works on one of several photovoltaic systems being evaluated for industry partners at Sandia National Laboratories in the U.S. Regional Test Centers program. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories won a three-year renewal of a Department of Energy contract to manage the U.S. Regional Test Centers (RTCs), a...
Solar Power in Vermont
Post, November 7, 2013 • Sen. Bernie Sanders was joined on Monday by Gov. Peter Shumlin and representatives of IBM, Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy to launch the Vermont Photovoltaic Regional Test Center. Sen. Bernie Sanders was joined on Monday by Gov. Peter Shumlin and representatives of IBM, Sandia National Laboratories...
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