The Energy Center (TEC) has concluded a training session on the Installation, Maintenance and Management of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) for the monitoring of solar radiation and other atmospheric parameters. The training coincided with the installation of the newly procured weather station with support from the World Bank under the Solar Capacity Upgrading Project (SolarCUP).
Parameters to be monitored are: global, diffuse and direct solar radiation; ambient temperature; humidity; wind speed and direction; etc.
The training coincided with the installation of the newly procured weather station with support from the World Bank under the Solar Capacity Upgrading Project (SOLARCUP).
The training took place from 23 April to 02 May 2012, and was hosted by the Solar Energy Applications Laboratory (SEAL) at the College of Engineering and was led by experts from Sutron Corporation of Virginia, USA (Messrs Faisal Al-Mtwali, Patrick Tchakounte and Gang Chen).
Participants at the training came from KNUST, Volta River Authority, Ghana Meteorological Agency, the Koforidua Polytechnic and the Department of Energy of the Ministry of Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy of Liberia.
Trainees were taken through various aspects of the installation, maintenance and management of weather stations, including:
• Hardware Training on AWS
• Hardware Training on Solar Tracker
• Training on Sensors
• Training on Data Collection Platform/Logger
• XConnect Data Acquisition Software
• Web output Display
• Etc
The system also included a Base Station that enables the transmission of real-time data from remote stations.
Addressing participants at the training on behalf of the Director of TEC, Mr David Ato Quansah, Coordinator of the SolarCUP project indicated that installation of the AWS forms part of TEC’s efforts to develop capacity in solar energy resource assessment, particularly for feasibility studies on utility-scale PV and CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) projects.
Participants expressed satisfaction at the end of the training and thanked organizers for inviting them. They expressed the hope that collaboration will be strengthened with their various agencies for mutual benefit
The system will be commissioned during the upcoming International Solar Energy Experts Workshop (I-SEE, 2012).
To view pictures from the training session, please click here.
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