Through an effort to better predict the solar energy conversion of PV cells in regions of occasional cloudiness, the subject software was developed to process optically captured whole-sky images, differentiate clouds from clear sky, and correlate said cloud coverage with the productivity of nearby PV installations. Mapping the frequency and density of local cloud coverage can have valuable implications in planning a new solar collection installation, and/or for load balancing with other sources of power when the system identifies an impending reduction in solar efficiency due to passing clouds.
This technology can be more fully explored at the following link, which features a roll-out of this system at UC San Diego. See http://maeresearch.ucsd.edu/kleissl/SolarPowerForecasting.pdf
Intellectual Property Info
This technology is available for licensing as copyright protected software.
Tech ID: 21479 / UC Case 2011-819-0
