General Lab Information

NSERC

NSERC

A multi-purpose research facility on the Brookhaven campus

Brookhaven National Laboratory developed the Northeast Solar Energy Research Center (NSERC) on its campus to serve as a solar energy research and test facility for the solar industry. The NSERC includes a solar PV research array for field testing existing or innovative new technologies under actual northeastern weather conditions and is fully instrumented to provide high resolution data for research purposes.

The NSERC includes access to unique high-resolution data sets from the 32MW Long Island Solar Farm located at Brookhaven. NSERC is a facility that is accessible to the industry with capabilities to address the major challenges facing the deployment and integration of sustainable solar energy resources, particularly in the northeastern United States, as a means of ensuring the Nation's future energy security.

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NSERC Mission

Support the expansion of solar power in the Northeast by providing high quality data, field-testing, analyses, and solar energy expertise to address technical, economic, environmental, and policy issues facing solar power deployment in northeastern climates.

Overarching Research themes

  • Grid integration of solar energy resources
  • Research and developmental testing of new solar system technologies, including new inverter control technologies, micro-inverters, and other technologies
  • Characterization and management of solar energy variability for plants in the Northeast
  • Solar resource measurement and forecasting
  • Test bed for Smart Grid enabling technologies, including smart grid sensors and micro-grid control schemes

Research Areas

  • Solar Photovoltaics
  • Energy Storage
  • Reliability and Degradation
  • Grid Integration
  • Smart Inverter
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Smart Grid
  • Solar forecasting
  • Field Testing