Project Info
Impacts of wildfires on solar photovoltaic generation
Paulo Tabares
tabares@mines.edu
Wildfires are becoming more frequent and larger its effects can extend to the entire country. Wildfires not only destroy habitats and homes, but produce poor air quality and solar energy generation. Thus, this is a study with high impact to society that we could expand to other topics, such as health.
In particular, this study will quantify the impacts wildfires in California in 2021 and subsequent wildfire smoke had in solar photovoltaics (PV) generation in Denver, Colorado.
More Information:
Grand Challenge: Make solar energy economical.
See EIA information: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=45336
Primary Contacts:
Paulo Tabares: tabares@mines.edu
Student Preparation
Qualifications
The student should be able to manage and process data from: 1) https://www2.purpleair.com/ for PM2 data and 2) PV data from NREL
Matlab or python programming skills are needed.
TIME COMMITMENT (HRS/WK)
5
SKILLS/TECHNIQUES GAINED
Improve data analytics skill sets and how to appropriately develop graphs that fully show the potential of wildfires on PV. Students will also improve technical writing skills as (pending results), we could potentially publish this on a journal
MENTORING PLAN
I will meet with the student once a week to cover progress but also do professional development.
PREFERRED STUDENT STATUS
Junior
Senior