Hogue Technology Building Solar Photovoltaic System

A solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) system was installed the roof of the Hogue Technology Building at Central Washington University (CWU). This system provides 28 kilowatts of energy into the buildings’ electricity distribution system to reduce the electrical demand of the building. More importantly it provides a platform for renewable energy education and research. It also earned points towards a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating. This research project set out to discover the possible research topics that could be explored using this PV system as a test bed. Currently the author is working on a project to determine the wind forces on the solar panels to help develop future design guidelines for PV panel support structures. A recent project developed learner outcomes and assessed these learner outcomes when using the PV system as a visual learning tool. Possible research opportunities for using the system as a test bed were explored; cleaning the panels to determine if improving efficiency of the panels was worth the labor cost of cleaning panels and comparing the tilt angle of the panels to a different tilt angle at the city of Ellensburg PV site to determine differences in efficiencies