School Power Naturally Solar PV Data
Welcome to the updated School Power Naturally data portal. In addition to a new look, it includes an improved user interface, site photos; more features and site information; This site also has data from a number of additional sites. The sites include data from wind turbines, different-sized solar arrays, and tracking arrays, which are solar arrays that track the sun. The
old portal will remain available for the foreseeable future to maintain compatibility with the screen images when accessing the
online lessons. (The online lessons are still usable with the updated portal.)
In addition to the original 50 schools with 2 kW solar arrays, this portal adds data from other sites such as wind turbines at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, the solar array at NYSERDA's headquarters, and the new solar array at Children's Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST). These sites have their own web portals. In some cases, such as with CMOST, these portals include advanced meteorological data. This portal contains links to those sites for access to the advanced features. The aggregation feature can be accessed with the View Data button at the bottom of this page. This tool enables the user to access the aggregated data from all 50 of the original schools. For example, the plot of power from this aggregated data is a plot of the output of all 50 schools combined.
The map shows where all of the sites are throughout New York State. Where the sites are close together, zoom in to resolve any confusion. Click on the sun icons to get a miniature plot of what is going on at that site. Then click the link on the miniature plot to access detailed data about the site. You will also notice photos of many of the renewable energy systems. Contact Heliotronics at info@heliotronics.com if your site is in need of a photo. Information is available about most of the systems. This includes product model numbers so, for example, you can access spec sheets for the exact solar modules being used for the system your students are studying.
The "Compare Sites" function is entirely new. It allows the user to select any number of sites to compare. They can be selected by clicking on the site list or the map and then clicking Compare Sites link at the top. This will show side-by-side plots of multiple sites. Consider, for example, selecting sites from the West to the East on a day that a weather front is moving across the state. You will be able to see exactly where the front is by looking at where the power curves drop off.
