Columbia Weather Systems

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 imp...

The University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Team is racing “EOS II” in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge with the help of the Magellan MX500™ Weather Station mounted on their lead vehicle. The real-time weather data is used to optimize speed and energy consumption. Good luck to the team – we’re cheering you on from Oregon! Click here if video is not shown . Watch  the full vehicle wrap video from Wrap City Graphics here .

Maria Telkes was a pioneer in solar energy technology. As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we have the spotlight on Hungarian-American biophysicist, scientist, and inventor Maria Telkes.  Nicknamed the “Sun Queen,” Maria had an early interest in solar energy. She completed her PhD in physical chemistry at the University of Budapest in 1924 and went on to serve 14 years on MIT’s Solar Energy Conversion Project, the beginning of a career spanning 50 years in innovative solar energy technology.  Notable inventions include: The Dover Sun House project, an experimental residence heated entirely with solar power. The solar oven, developed for third-world countries A solar still system that converted seawater into drinking water for use on military life boats during WWII Over the course of her career, Maria earned 20 patents and published more than 100 articles. She received numerous prestigious awards, and became the first recipient of the Society ...

Cleanspark, a microgrid company with controls for distributed energy resource management systems, uses a Solar 2 Weather Station from Columbia Weather Systems to give context to their performance metrics. They use weather-corrected solar generation data, based on measured irradiance from the weather station, versus modeled irradiance when calculating actual performance versus modeled for contractual obligations. Additionally, weather data “will be the basis of certain alarm conditions as well as reporting,” according to Bryan Huber, chief operations officer. “Weather information is highly useful for load and production forecasting.” Based on the CWS’s flagship Capricorn model, the Solar 2 Weather Station includes barometric pressure, mechanical wind speed and direction sensors, and temperature and humidity sensors housed in a radiation shield, in addition to panel temperature and solar radiation sensors. Individual sensors allow for optimal sensor placement. A custom sensor c...

We received a visit from the University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project Team on their way home from the American Solar Challenge which finished in Bend, Oregon. Columbia Weather donated a Magellan MX500™ weather station to the project. The weather station is mounted on the lead vehicle (See video above) and is used for strategy data. Met data is correlated with course info and car data to optimize speed and energy consumption. Racing in the Cruiser Class of Multi-Occupancy Vehicles, UMNSVP placed first in the Formula Sun Grand Prix (a track-based qualifier) and second in the ASC. Congratulations and thanks for stopping by!

When the University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project was looking for a weather station to help them compete in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, they contacted Columbia Weather Systems. A Magellan MX500™ Weather Station was mounted on a support vehicle to provide met data to help optimize power for the solar-powered, cruiser-class car dubbed “Eos II.” Besides speed, cruiser-class vehicles focus on practicality and number of people in the car. Gearing up for the race, electrical technical advisor Spencer Berglund related, “We’ve been test driving a lot for the past few days and have been using your weather station for gathering accurate power to drive data for our car. We will also be using it every day on the race.” The U of M Solar Vehicle Project is a student-administered, designed, and built project that teaches members about engineering and management in a complete product development environment. The diverse design and construction challenges help further the school’...

As noted by our May News brief on Swinerton Renewable Energy, weather monitoring for solar power projects has been a growing market for Columbia Weather Systems over the past few years. With this experience, we have put together three weather station systems to meet various monitoring requirements. All systems feature the Weather MicroServer in a weatherproof enclosure with panel temperature and solar radiation sensor(s). • Solar 1 Weather Stations add an Orion all-in-one sensor unit with ultrasonic wind direction and speed measurements, a highly-accurate impact rain sensor, capacitive relative humidity, temperature and barometric pressure readings. No moving parts enhances ease of use and durability. • Solar 2 Weather Stations feature the ease of the Vela all-in-one sensor package with reliable, mechanical wind sensors, temperature and humidity sensors in a radiation shield, and a solid state barometric pressure sensor. • Solar 3 Weather Stations feature simply the Weather Micro...

Two ISO second-class compliant solar radiation sensors are now available as options for the Weather MicroServer. This improvement in our product line comes in direct response to customer requests. The Kipp and Zonen (top) and Hukseflux thermopile-based sensors can be mounted horizontally for global radiation measurement or at plane of array (POA) for PV solar applications. With better performance and stability than our standard radiation sensor, these are specifically well-suited for monitoring solar panel arrays. The Weather MicroServer offers Internet and Industrial protocols for applications including XML, FTP, Modbus/OPC, and SNMP. Optional sensors include visibility, solar radiation, and temperature (ambient, panel, soil, or water), as well as ultrasonic wind speed and direction. Click for more information on the Weather MicroServer .