PowerDash presents at national ASES solar conference

How can wireless approaches to PV performance monitoring shape the future of distributed generation? Today, at the national American Solar Energy Society (ASES) conference in Buffalo, PowerDash founders Chuck Wright and Stephen Lapointe joined Zapotec Energy president Paul Lyons in a presentation reflecting on this question. Other companies presenting included GE, Enphase Energy, and Applied Materials.

"A cleaner energy future is on the horizon. But," the presenters ask in their published paper, "what will that future look like? Will the conventional model of utility-scale power plants dominate, with new transmission lines carrying power from mammoth solar thermal plants and wind farms to our metropolitan areas? Or will we rapidly expand microgrids of smaller renewable installations serving communities closer to the generation source? While there are many policy, business, and technology considerations that enter into this discussion, one factor is the degree to which microgrids can be effectively monitored and managed."

The paper focuses on three PowerDash projects employing emerging approaches to wireless remote monitoring, including mesh and cellular networks, that could serve as models for the microgrid.

One of the three projects, a 392 kilowatt (DC) system near Boston, is at the time of writing the largest rooftop solar installation in the state of Massachusetts. It is part of Boston Community Capital's BCC Solar Energy Advantage program, which in aggregate represents a megawatt of solar energy generation on the Massachusetts electric grid. PowerDash services support daily operations and maintenance to optimize system performance, enable financial reporting to state agencies and regional energy markets, facilitate billing for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and provide engaging web services to increase public awareness of clean energy.