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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 Resources Measurements 

in Elizabeth City, North Carolina –

Equipment Only

Cooperative Research and Development 

Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-07-217

NREL Technical Contact: Tom Stoffel (Primary); 

Afshin Andreas (Alternate)

CRADA Report

NREL/TP-5200-60426

January 2014
NOTICE

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. 

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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-07-217

CRADA Title: Solar Resources Measurements in Elizabeth City, NC - Equipment Only

Parties to the Agreement: Elizabeth City University

Joint Work Statement Funding Table showing DOE Commitment:

Estimated Costs NREL Shared Resources

Year 1 $ 10,400.00

Year 2 $ 00.00

Year 3 $ 00.00

TOTALS $ 10,400.00

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 (www.nrel.gov/midc). 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:

The solar resource measurements completed as part of this CRADA add to the valuable historical 

record produced by the students and staff at Elizabeth City State University that began in 

September 1985. As one of the first stations in the DOE/NREL Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities (HBCU) Solar Measurement Network and continuing as one of the most successful 
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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

stations in the DOE/NREL Cooperative Network for Renewable Resource Measurements 

(CONFRRM) Network, the sub-hourly data continue to be available from NREL’s MIDC and 

Renewable Resource Data Center (http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/new_data/confrrm/ec/). The highquality measurements contributed to the development of National Solar Radiation Database 

(NSRDB) providing hourly solar resource and meteorological data important for the deployment 

of solar energy conversion systems in the United States

(http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/ ). Relevant NREL publications are available from 

www.nrel.gov/publications/, including those listed below:

Author Publication

Year Title Report Numbers

Posey-Eddy, F.; 

McConnell, R. D.

2002 Assessment of the DOE/NREL Historically 

Black College and University Photovoltaic 

Research Associates Program

TP-820-

32169

Marion, W. 1994 Summary Information and Data Sets for the 

HBCU Solar Measurements Network

TP-463-

7090

Stoffel, T. L. 1987 HBCU Solar Radiation Network Annual 

Report: FY 1986

PR-215-

3098

Maxwell, E. L.; 

Szwarc, V. S.; 

Stoffel, T. L.

1986 Progress Report on the SERI/HBCU Task to 

Upgrade the Assessment of Insolation 

Resources in the Southeastern United States

PR-215-

2917

Stoffel, T.; Andreas, 

A.

1985 Elizabeth City State University: Elizabeth 

City, North Carolina (Data)

DA-5500-

56517

Subject Inventions Listing:

N/A

Report Date:

September 11, 2013

Responsible Technical Contact at Alliance/NREL:

Tom Stoffel (Primary); Afshin Andreas (Alternate)

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