Solar Energy Projects

Monitoring weather conditions helps optimize performance of utility-scale solar panel arrays

Swinerton Renewable Energy, North America

Weather stations from Columbia Weather Systems provides meteorological data to Swinerton's proprietary SCADA system at solar energy project sites. The construction company offers turn-key solar power solutions for utility-scale and distributed generation projects.

How does Swinerton use weather stations for solar energy projects?

Joe Brotherton, manager of the technical services team, reports that Swinerton’s operations and maintenance management offers performance guarantees based on site analysis. Monitoring weather conditions is vital to optimizing performance.

Swinerton’s weather stations include the Orion sensor module plus a panel temperature sensor and two solar radiation sensors – one at plane of array and the other on a tracker. The system is connected through the Weather MicroServer.

On this Swinerton project, Columbia Weather integrated the Hukseflux SR20 solar sensor. SR20 is a pyranometer of the highest category in the ISO 9060 classification system: secondary standard. This solar radiation sensor is used where the highest measurement accuracy is required.

“​We like the price point, always get a response, and it integrates easily into our SCADA system.”

Other Swinerton Projects that Utilize CWS Weather Stations:

Red Horse

Weather Stations for solar energy project monitoring

Springbok

Avalon

Rosamond

Palmdale East

Sandstone