Validating locations of plant combiners

Automating validation of plant equipment locations

I recently worked with Will Hobbs of Southern Company to develop a method for testing whether a plant contained mislabeled equipment (in this case combiners). We compared a few of the predictions on the real plant and at least for that small test, the method was 100% successful. Read Full Article

Map of energy infrastructure in Philadelphia

Optimizing Renewables in Philadelphia

A recent publication (accepted in Applied Energy) deals with the optimal mix of distributed solar and wind generation to reduce required energy storage in the Philadelphia area. Using FlexiGIS, we found that the optimum is an even 50%/50% mix of wind and solar. A variety of methods could also be considered to reduce storage at higher renewable penetration levels. Read Full Article

A DHI sensor measuring sunlight

Sabbatical in Oldenburg

I spent six months of 2019 living in Oldenburg, Germany, where I worked as a visiting scientist with DLR and the University of Oldenburg. In my time there I developed skills with solar irradiance forecasting, and worked with all-sky imager data to develop a spatially resolved forecast of irradiance. Stay tuned for more results from this work! Read More

Irradiance time series after smoothing

Recreating solar irradiance time series

One of my key sabbatical projects was improving upon existing models that predict how a solar irradiance time series is smoothed due to aggregation by a large plant. Surprisingly, my combustion expertise was able to come into play, helping me make a better model for solar energy. I have recent results from this work in two recent conference publications and a journal article. Read More



Firefighters spray solar panel with specialized foam.

Solar Energy
Students test rocket designs in Kerbal Space Program.

Engineering Pedagogy
Flame

Combustion