“For all of our ten-year history, PARI has been committed to developing state-of-the-art equipment to support research, education and public outreach,” said President Don Cline.  “Not only does the solar array fit within that part of our mission, but it also provides us the opportunity to demonstrate to students, teachers, scientists and engineers how such a system can be designed and built to serve a practical application while moving away from traditional electric power consumption.”

Lamar Owen, PARI’s chief information officer, is supervising the design and construction of the array system and all of the construction is being done by PARI staff, under the supervision of Thad McCall, facilities manager.  All of the solar panels, inverters and associated hardware are from Affordable-Solar LLC.  The first of the five arrays is now operational. “When completed,” Owen said, “the system will provide over ten kilowatts of clean power to operate research instruments and networking equipment at
multiple discrete locations on PARI's optical ridge. The system will have sufficient metering and adjustments to provide a rich solar energy lab for students' educational experiences, with system performance metrics available through a web interface.  In addition, converting the optical ridge to alternative energy will help reduce the possibility of lightning damage to our sensitive scientific equipment.”

Christi Whitworth, PARI’s education director, said the project will also be an invaluable teaching tool.  “Most students today are interested in conserving resources and protecting the environment.  Like so much else we do here at PARI, this project takes those ideas out of the classroom and provides a real hands-on learning experience.  We can demonstrate to teachers and students how such systems can be designed and built, and let them observe in real-time the differential outputs of solar panel placement, angles and other factors.  This project has the potential to add value in every aspect of STEM education:  science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

About PARI
The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) foundation established in 1998.  Located in the Pisgah Forest 30 miles southwest of Asheville, NC, the PARI campus is a dark sky location for astronomy and was selected in 1962 by NASA as the site for one of the first U.S. satellite tracking facilities.  Today, the 200 acre campus houses radio and optical telescopes, earth science instruments, 30 buildings, a fulltime staff and all the infrastructure necessary to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and research.  PARI offers educational programs at all levels, from K-12 through post-graduate research.  The institute is a member of the NC Grassroots Museum Collaborative, a partner in NC OPT-ED and is affiliated with the 16-campus University of North Carolina system through PARSEC, a UNC Center hosted at PARI.  For more information about PARI and its programs, visit www.pari.edu.