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Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Solar Resource Measurements 

in Canyon, Texas – Equipment 

Only Loan

Cooperative Research and 

Development Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-07-233

NREL Technical Contact: Afshin Andreas

CRADA Report

NREL/TP-5D00-62410

July 2014
NOTICE

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Cover Photos: (left to right) photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16416, photo from SunEdison, NREL 17423, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 

16560, photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 17613, photo by Dean Armstrong, NREL 17436, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 17721.

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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

In accordance with Requirements set forth in Article XI.A(3) of the CRADA document, this document is 

the final CRADA report, including a list of Subject Inventions, to be forwarded to the Office of Science 

and Technical Information as part of the commitment to the public to demonstrate results of federally 

funded research.

CRADA Number: CRD-07-233

CRADA Title: Solar Resource Measurements in Canyon, TX. Equipment Only Loan

Parties to the Agreement: West Texas A&M University Alternative Energy

Joint Work Statement Funding Table Showing DOE Commitment:

Estimated Costs NREL Shared Resources

Year 1 $ 23,372.00

Year 2 $ 00.00

Year 3 $ 00.00

TOTALS $ 23,372.00

Abstract of CRADA Work:

Site-specific, long-term, continuous, and high-resolution measurements of solar irradiance are important 

for developing renewable resource data. These data are used for several research and development 

activities consistent with the NREL mission:

• Establish a national 30-year climatological database of measured solar irradiances 

• Provide high-quality ground-truth data for satellite remote sensing validation

• Support development of radiative transfer models for estimating solar irradiance from available 

meteorological observations

• Provide solar resource information needed for technology deployment and operations.

Data acquired under this agreement will be available to the public through NREL’s Measurement & 

Instrumentation Data Center (MIDC) or the Renewable Resource Data Center (RReDC). The MIDC 

offers a variety of standard data display, access, and analysis tools designed to address the needs of a wide 

user audience (e.g., industry, academia, and government interests).

Summary of Research Results:

Solar resource measurements are available from West Texas University A&M for the period of June 1997 

through March 2000 using equipment on loan from NREL. As a participant in the U.S. Department of 

Energy/NREL Cooperative Network for Renewable Resource Measurements (CONFRRM), the 

measurements from West Texas University A&M are available from the RReDC 

at http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/new_data/confrrm/cn/. The data interval is five minutes. Solar resource data 

and time-series plots for this and 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy 

Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database.
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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Subject Inventions Listing: Not Applicable

Report Date: June 6, 2014

Responsible Technical Contact at Alliance/NREL: Afshin Andreas

This document contains NO confidential, protectable, or proprietary information.