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| Wednesday, August 02, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal POWERING THE WAY New mobile, solar energy unit demonstrated at test site By John G. Edwards
Review-Journal Engineering students and their professors at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas helped the U.S. Department of Energy design a better way to power remote air sampling devices at the Nevada Test Site.
The result was a relatively low-cost but mobile and efficient solar power unit that officials demonstrated Tuesday at the DOE facilities in Las Vegas.
The $28,000, 1.75 kilowatt photovoltaic system converts sunlight directly into electricity. The DOE intends to use the prototype to run an air filtration system that measures radioactivity at numerous locations around the Nevada Test Site, where the government once tested nuclear bombs.
Direct Power and Water of Albuquerque, N.M., built the prototype under a $300,000 federal grant obtained by the Corporation of Solar Technology and Renewable Resources in Las Vegas.
The New Mexico company has a two-year exclusive contract to manufacture additional units. CSTRR is responsible to help market the product, but it hopes that UNLV, or the Desert Research Institute will take over that responsibility when it closes, said Rose McKinney-James, CSTRR's acting chief executive.
Direct Power intends to sell units to government agencies and others that may need remote electrical power for air quality testing, said Kevin Goodreau, company president.
"They can collect data out in the boonies over the most difficult terrain with these units," McKinney-James said.
The solar unit can also power telecommunications equipment or even a small, energy-efficient house.
The product comes on a trailer and can be moved to a new location by two men with a vehicle. It has batteries that can store energy for up to a week and that can continue generating electricity after dark, Goodreau said.
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nevada, said renewable energy "has never been more relevant," given the high cost of natural gas and power shortages.
The unit's concept was developed by UNLV engineering students, engineering Professor Yahai Baghzouz and Robert Boehm, director of the Center for Energy Research at UNLV.
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Robert Boehm, director of the Center for Energy Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, shows a solar power unit developed for the Nevada Test Site. UNLV will be building smaller versions for Clark County high schools to use in science and technology classes.
Photo by Steve Andrascik.
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