Solar energy is more affordable than ever before, making it a safe, clean alternative for communities, homeowners, and companies nationwide. The solar industry is more than 60 percent of the way to reaching the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative affordability target of $0.06 per kilowatt-hour solar power. Based on the Energy Information Administration, in the first six months of the year, renewable energy sources accounted for over 14% of the net U.S. electrical generation, an astounding achievement predicted by many to not occur until 2040. The electricity generated by solar sources has increased by more than a third in this period.
Despite this advancement, obstacles remain in the widespread implementation of solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems. One of these barriers is the lack of testing facilities in the United States that enable American manufacturers to demonstrate and validate the performance and reliability of new PV and CPV technologies–critical steps to securing large-scale investments and growing the solar industry.
To address the need for test beds for large-scale systems, the Energy Department–in partnership with National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories–established five Regional Test Centers (RTC) across the nation. The centers supply industries and other critical users with grid integration capabilities, sites, as well as large-scale testing and monitoring of data needed to:
Test the performance of PV systems.
Validate the models that are used to predict performance.
Take note of all operations and maintenance information,
Assess the PV module’s quality degradation rates and system reliability issues.
Examine environmental factors’ impact on PV technologies’ durability, reliability, and safety.
The RTC, located in Williston, Vermont, recently achieved significant milestones by installing a solar energy 66-kilowatt research system. Today, the Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Dr. David Danielson, toured the facility, focusing on studying performance data and assisting collaborative research on solar energy integration technology in Vermont’s electricity grid. Sandia National Laboratories oversees the Vermont RTC, which is situated on the IBM property.