ECIS has developed a new external website to facilitate the functions of the five DOE RTCs—both interacting with each other to fulfill the overall DOE objectives and with partners in the U.S. PV industry. The site houses project updates, news, and events as well as controlled access for project file sharing.
The DOE has commissioned five RTCs to provide the long-term technical data and the model validation for the performance and reliability of new PV technologies required to help U.S. PV industry expand; reduce overall costs; and reduce risks to the integrators, owners, and finance groups. The RTCs provide the framework to demonstrate large-scale manufacturing and bankability of new technology pathways.
PV systems could perform differently at different sites for many reasons (solar resource, environmental conditions, etc.). One of the objectives of the validation work is to measure and document these differences—to improve industry’s ability to predict the output of new technologies regardless of where they are deployed. The five RTC sites, chosen to leverage existing solar/PV expertise, are (location, climate type, and host institution)
1. Albuquerque, New Mexico |
hot, dry climate |
Sandia National Laboratories |
2. Denver, Colorado |
steppe (arid, high-altitude) climate |
National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
3. Orlando, Florida |
hot, humid climate |
Florida Solar Energy Center |
4. Williston, Vermont |
cold, humid climate |
IBM |
5. Las Vegas, Nevada |
hot, dry climate |
Univ. of Nevada–Las Vegas |
Read the PV RTC fact sheet.