NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy 

Efficiency & Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Solar Resources Measurements 

in Houston, TX – Equipment Only

Cooperative Research and Development 

Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-06-204

NREL Technical Contact: Tom Stoffel

CRADA Report

NREL/TP-7A10-55340

September 2012
NOTICE

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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.

Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-06-204

CRADA Title: Solar Resources Measurements in Houston, TX - Equipment Only

Parties to the Agreement: Texas Southern University

Joint Work Statement Funding Table showing DOE commitmen

Estimated Costs

t:

NREL Shared Resources

Year 1 $ 16,431.00

Year 2 $ 00.00

Year 3 $ 00.00

TOTALS $ 16,431.00

Abstract of CRADA work

Loaning Texas Southern University equipment in order to perform site-specific, long-term, continuous, 

and high-resolution measurements of solar irradiance is 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 (http://www.nrel.gov/midc) Or the Renewable Resource Data 

Center - RReDC (http://rredc.nrel.gov). 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).
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Summary of Research Results

Faculty and staff at Texas Southern University collected solar resource measurements at the Houston 

campus using equipment on loan from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The equipment was 

used to train students on the operation and maintenance of solar radiometers and was returned to 

NREL’s Solar Radiation Research Laboratory upon completion of the CRADA. The resulting data augment 

the solar resource climatology information required for solar resource characterizations in the U.S.

:

Subject Inventions Listing: Not Applicable

Report Date: July 6, 2012 Responsible Technical Contact at Alliance/NREL: Tom Stoffel

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