1. Energy and Agriculture Related Applied Science Projects using NASA’s POWER/SSE Web Applications
ESIP Meeting, Winter 2016
Jan 6-8
Paul W. Stackhouse, Jr. – NASA Langley Research Center
William Chandler, James Hoell, David Westberg, Dr. Taiping Zhang, SSAI
Jason Barnett, Matt Tisdale, Brian Tisdale, Tyler Bristow,
Booz-Allen-Hamilton
John Kusterer and Brandi Quam – Atmospheric Science Data Center, NASA LaRC
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

2. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
POWER Overview
Objectives: Improve the Nation’s public/private capability for integrating environmental data from NASA research to support increased renewable energy development, energy efficiency and agricultural modeling.
Goals: Through partnerships, derive/validate/provide parameters relevant to industry needs, link to decision support, and transition capabilities when possible.
Website:
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

3. POWER Approach: Research to Decisions
NASA Earth-Sun Satellite Analysis
and Modeling Projects:
(ISCCP, GEWEX SRB, CERES FLASHFlux,
GMAO GEOS)
POWER/SSE Project
Adaptation and
validation of
parameters
Solar and meteorological parameters in specialized units
Satellite
observations,
analysis and
modeling
(~15,000 unique users, ~ 1,200,000 hits and 230,000 data downloads per month)
200+ Parameters (most on-the-fly)
Data Accessibility
through
Web Interface
POWER/SSE Datasets and Web interface
Surface Solar Irradiance (W m-2)
RETScreen® International
~ 460,000 Global Users
Decision Support
System design and
planning tool
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

4. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
SSE Supports Solar & Renewable Energy Sector Using SRB & GMAO Atmospheric Reanalysis
SSE v6
22 Year climatological
Over 200 parameters, many on the fly, tailored for renewable energy
Data quality information
ASCII tables, time series, regional plots/data
Direct connection to 2 renewable energy DSS tools
20 Millionth data request fulfilled in July for release 6.0
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

5. SSE for Decision Support: RETScreen Clean Energy Analysis
RETScreen Climate Database
Under Natural Resources Canada
Aimed for both feasibility and detailed scenario analysis of clean energy projects
Data for built-in cities of world or direct query of SSE data through web
>459,000+ users
Release 4: 36 languages
Claim approx. $6 Billion saved last 10 yrs; approx 10% saved due to NASA SSE inputs
RETScreen Release 4. Note the usage of the NASA derived data both from SRB and it’s inputs (i.e., GMAO GEOS-4)
NASA data
In Situ data
Points represent world’s cities (~10,000). Red have in situ observations. Blue defer to NASA LaRC data sets (~5,000). Data for locations between points are found through a direct link to SSE.
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

6. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

7. Direct Retrieval of RETScreen Formatted Data from SSE
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8. Projects Facilitated by RETScreen
Some projects completed using RETScreen and most likely NASA provided data sets for at least some parameters.
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

9. RETScreen Plus - Sampling of Newsletter Articles
The follow articles available at:
Pennsylvania Firm Deploys Energy Management Software
Renewable Energy in Wisconsin
Funding Opportunity – NYSERDA Solar Thermal Incentive Program
Wicked Good Solar in Maine
World Bank Supports Water & Sanitation Utility Energy Audits
Germany Promotes Building Energy Efficiency in Ukraine
Strengthening the Foundations of Clean Energy in West Africa
RETScreen Enables Brazilian Clean Energy Market
Saudi Arabia Builds Clean Energy Capacity
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

10. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
RETScreen/SSE Example 1: Wisconsin’s Solar Water Heating System Program
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

11. RETScreen/SSE Example 2: Wicked Joe’s Coffee Roasting Company
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

12. POWER Supports Near-Real Time: NASA LaRC Building Energy Analysis
CERES
FLASHFLux
(using GMAO
FP-IT)
NRT Time Series POWER web
portal
RETScreen Energy Analysis
NASA data
and/or surface
measurements
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

13. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
Applied Science Uses: Energy RETScreen Plus - Performance Analysis Module
Helps user monitor, analyze, and report key energy performance data to facility operators, managers and senior decision-makers
Energy management software tool
Monitoring, Targeting & Reporting (MT&R)
Measurement & Verification (M&V)
Energy tracking
Integrates near-real-time NASA -derived solar satellite (CERES FLASHFlux) and weather data (GMAO FP-IT) for entire surface of planet
Data
Analytics
Reporting
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

14. RETScreen Plus - User Info
Roughly 175,000 users worldwide (40% of total RETScreen user base)
NASA data made available in 36 languages covering 2/3rd world population, including throughout US and in developing countries
Example of some users:
In the US, Ford Motor Company, High Construction Company, Weston Bakeries, Bell Labs and NASA (CASI work group)
Numerous other enterprise customers who manage multiple facilities (e.g. pension funds, government agencies, landlords, utilities, private developers, multinationals, hospitals, school boards, etc.)
Extensive number of International financial institutions and agencies (e.g. World Bank, United Nations, etc.) and organizations, and their clients, in developing countries
Specific examples presented on following slides
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

15. RETScreen Example #1: Solar Panel System to
Supplement Building Energy Needs
Working with center energy management officials, four building energy assessments were completed using NASA Earth data and the RETScreen Energy Plus tool.
Net Energy Savings 160 MWh (2/10 – 3/13 )
Steady state RETScreen regression models now complete (NASA TMs available).
Supported by NASA’s Climate Adaptation Science Investigator Project (CASI)
Solar Panels Added
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

16. RETScreen Example #2: Solar Power Plant
Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative
293 kW Solar Power Plant Facility (Ottawa, Ca)
Monthly electrical output compared to monthly averaged solar irradiance (corrected with tilt parameterization) from FLASHFlux
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

17. RETScreen Example #3: GSHP System
Optimization of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System
Lee et al., 2014, Optimizing GSHP Performance with ICT and RETScreen Plus,
Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, 8 (2014)
“The Republic of Korea has implemented a RHO (renewable heat obligation) whereby public sector
buildings larger than 10,000 m2 must reduce their
heating energy consumption by at least 11% between ”.
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

18. RETScreen Example #3: GSHP System
GMAO FP-IT
POWER (FLASHFLux)
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

19. POWER Agricultural Support
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20. Example #1: POWER and DSSAT
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21. Example #2: POWER and AgMIP/AgMerra
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22. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
Ag Example #3: POWER Agricultural Usage by CSIRO APSIM African Crop Modeling Project
APSIM (The Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator)
internationally recognized as a highly advanced simulator of agricultural systems.
DSSAT based formatted model
Run for crop systems in West, East and Southern Africa
FLASHFlux surface fluxes are “gold standard” of surface irradiance estimates for these regions (surface measurements are too poorly calibrated and/or maintained)
Also uses surface temperature and other parameters from GEOS FP-IT
Results complements of John Hargreaves, CSIRO
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

23. Next Steps: Adding GIS for Web Site Modernization and Mobile Devices
End-users of NASA data products increasingly requesting geospatial tool compatibility
LaRC ASDC is working to stand up “Web services” used to make the application platform and technology independent by following standards (i.e. DAP, WCS, WMS, etc.), promoting interoperability
One of those is an ArcGIS Image Service => NASA’s license with Esri allows the agency to acquire access to Esri ArcGIS software at no additional cost to programs
POWER/SSE now leading project, collaborating with ASDC, to add GIS capabilities and web services for access to data products.
We will leverage ArcGIS Portal for discoverability of all our services, tools, maps and apps. Our portal will be federated with the geospatial platform and data.gov for increased discoverability.
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

24. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
POWER/SSE GIS Sample
Browser enabled GIS functionality
Display parameters from global to small scale
Add background maps
Point for values
Download data to support ASCII or GeoTIFF applications
Scales to mobile devices
Release Jan ‘16
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

25. Summary and Conclusions
NASA Applied Science program aims to develop pathways for NASA derived data sets to influence decision support in multiple societal benefit areas including energy related technologies
POWER/SSE have delivered NASA data products to users in the renewable energy field for greater than 15 years
Usage continues to grow as more and more seek information on RE technologies
Connecting directly to key Decision Support tools like RETScreen and DSSAT are key to creating additional value
Some of these cases seem appropriate for the CRT “taking action”
POWER/SSE data sets and web technology rapidly becoming outdated so:
NASA is now funding a project to add GIS capability to SSE and support mobile device access
Simultaneously, updating all data sets and all web capabilities
With these efforts POWER/SSE will continue to expand dissemination of NASA research data products to Energy and Agricultural sectors by evolving with user capabilities to use more advanced tools.
NASA Applied Science program aims to develop pathways for NASA derived data sets to influence decision support in multiple societal benefit areas including energy related technologies

26. ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop
Web sites:
POWER
Surface meteorology and Solar Energy
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

27. POWER Next: Adding GIS to SSE
Current Workflow
Geographic Information System (GIS)
OGC Services
(ex. WMS, WCS, WFS, WPS)
Analytics
Visualization
Optimized for Mobile Devices
Geospatial Data Formats
(ex. Shapefile, KML)
New SSE-GIS Workflow
Raw Data Inputs
Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) 3-Hourly
GMAO Data Assimilation
Products 3-hourly
SSE Data Inputs
Generate Daily
Raw Files for SSE
For each Grid Box per
Parameter
Calculating & Storing Parameter
Generate & Store
Climatological Averages (by Lat/Lon for Multiple
Parameters in ASCII)
Generate & Store
Climatological Averages
(by Parameter for the Globe in ASCII)
Generate & Store
Daily Time Series
(by Lat/Lon for Limited
Parameters in ASCII)
The current process,
the two primary products we use (SRB and Climatology), that we use as inputs to develop SSE.
A series of perl scripts that are used to extract the data and calculate the daily averages for the SSE parameters. Then over the years we’ve developed 3 customized subsetter to meet community requirements for data formats. (daily, regional, and global products).
The new process will leverage a GIS to provide OGC compliant geospatial data web services, directly from the source data repositories, as inputs to geoprocessing analytical tools and visualizations.
1. Daily Data
2. Location/Regional Data Subsets;
3. Interannual Variability;
4. On-The-Fly Parameters;
5. RETScreen
6. HOMER
7. Global Data Sets
Interfaces to Access Data
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop

28. POWER Data Product Usage: RETScreen Performance Plus
RETScreen Performance Plus (imbedded in RETScreen Suite)
Internationally recognized for monitoring, targeting and verification of clean energy technologies in operational building systems
Special ASCII time series format used for SW + meteorological parameters from GEOS FP-IT
RETScreen reports at least 20,000 users worldwide with most using the NASA data sets from FLASHFlux production
Example usage includes Weston Bakeries (Wonder Bread), Ford Motor Company, Property management firms, government buildings (i.e., NASA), etc.
Usage results from Greg J. Leng, Manager, RETScreen International
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ESIP Ag/Energy Cluster CRT Workshop