Solar Microgrid Increases Resiliency for Chemeuevi Tribe Community

Extreme summer weather conditions, frequent power disruptions due to aging infrastructure, and distance from the main power grid put the Chemehuevi Tribe community near Lake Havasu, Arizona community at risk.

To mitigate this issue, a microgrid system was installed at the Community Center, which serves as an emergency response cooling center during power disruptions. The microgrid integrates the Solar 2 Capricorn FLX Weather Station with solar panels, battery storage, advanced data analytics, and smart energy management controls.

Mounted on the carport: The Solar 2 Capricorn FLX Weather Station includes sensors for wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, temperature and humidity in a radiation shield, solar radiation, and solar panel temp. This system also includes the optional tipping bucket rain gauge.

Alfredo Martinez-Morales, Managing Director of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy, said the weather station “helps monitor some of the data that is important for us to perform efficiency calculations in terms of solar prediction… This project has the dual benefit of providing an environmentally friendly power system for the tribe while allowing researchers to study a system that could become a model for people in California and elsewhere.”

Another angle shows the weatherproof enclosure (bottom left).

Environmental monitoring is critical to optimizing the efficiency of solar panels. CWS offers three weather station models for solar project monitoring, all of which include key parameters of panel temperature, air temperature, and solar radiation. These weather stations interface with industrial monitoring and automation systems as well as web-based weather networks through the Weather MicroServer.

➡️ Click here to read the full application note.

➡️ Weather Stations for Solar Energy Projects page

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