Solar Location Analysis: The PVWatts Calculator

This collection from the Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education Resource Center (CREATE) is composed of teaching materials that highlight a lesson on PVWatts and internet research. In the lesson, students work with data tables, graphs, and assessments. The collection is composed of six documents. 

Documents include an instructor's guide and answer key, student response guide, PV watts calculator spreadsheet, a student activity guide, and two standards documents. The instructor's guide and answer key includes information about the lesson, including learning goals, an introduction to the activity, answer guidance, and more. The student response guide provides the assessment for the lesson. The spreadsheet includes a place for students to enter data. The student activity guide introduces students to the PVWatts Calculator. During the activity students "become acquainted with important solar system terminology, information, economics, and production data." Using PVWatts students record and graph solar PV production data from several locations. The graphs are then used to draw conclusions and students summarize what they "learned about the science of locating a solar PV array." The standards documents explore energy literacy principles and concepts, as well as next generation high school science standards. 

For orientation purposes 508_solar-location-analysis-the-pvwatts-calculator-sudent-activity-guide.pdf is included as a separate attachment and offers a sample of the type of the material included in this module.

Below is a list of the files included in the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis. 

508_Solar_Location_Analysis_The_PVWATTS_Calculator (6 files, 1.6 MB)

• Instructor's Guide and Answer Key (508_solar-location-analysis-the-pvwatts-calculator-instructors-guide---answer-key.pdf 394 KB)
• Student Response Guide (508_solar-location-analysis-the-pvwatts-calculator-student-response-guide.pdf 352 KB)
• PV Watt Calculator Spreadsheet (508_solar-location-analysis-the-pvwatts-calculator-student-spreadsheet.pdf 138 KB)
• Student Activity Guide (508_solar-location-analysis-the-pvwatts-calculator-sudent-activity-guide.pdf 509 KB)
• Energy Literacy Standards (508_standards-advanced-els-pvwatts.pdf 98 KB)
• Next Generation Science Standards (508_standards-advanced-ngss-pvwatts.pdf 100 KB)