Solar Radiation Monitoring Network


The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Solar Radiation Monitoring Network operated from November 1985 through December 1996. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the six-station network (locations shown on "clickable" map below) provided 5-minute averaged measurements of global and diffuse horizontal solar irradiance. The data were processed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to improve the assessment of the solar radiation resources in the southeastern United States. Three of the stations also measured the direct-normal solar irradiance with a pyrheliometer mounted in an automatic sun tracker. All data are archived in the Standard Broadband Format (SBF) with quality-assessment indicators. Monthly data summaries and plots are also available for each month.


Mississippi Valley State University Savannah State College Bethune-Cookman College South Carolina State College Elizabeth City State University Bluefield State College




Historical HBCU data from July 1985 through December 1996 that are available online include quality assessed data, monthly reports, and plots.

In January 1997 the HBCU sites became part of the CONFRRM solar monitoring network.



Return to RReDC Home Page
( http://rredc.nrel.gov/ )