Solar Ypsi Project provides hands-on collaboration for EMU

Ypsilanti Food Co-Op volunteer and solar guru Dave Strenski wants everyone to see the Food Co-Op's 2,280-watt solar array at work. Trouble is, solar panels don't do much to draw attention. They don't clang or hiss or belch smoke. Heck, they look like they're just sitting there on the roof doing nothing.

HARNESS THE SUN: William Sverdlik, an Eastern Michigan University computer science professor (standing), and Nik Estep, an EMU computer science student, check out the solar panels atop the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op. Under Sverdlik's guidance, Estep wrote a program that translates the electrical pulses coming off the co-op's meters into a series of graphs — in real time — on to the Ypsilanti Solar Project's Web site. The reports detail how much energy is coming from the power grid, how much is coming from the solar panels and how much energy the solar panels send back out onto the electrical grid.

So Strenski, an application analyst by trade, set up monitoring equipment and a computer connection to capture information about the Food Co-Op's electrical use. The stream of reports tells how much energy is coming from the power grid, how much is coming from the 2,280-watt solar panel array on the roof, and how much is being pushed back out onto the grid.

The reports would pop up, line after line of text, on an old laptop inside the store. But their awkward format made the news hard to share with the world — until Strenski teamed up with Nik Estep, an Eastern Michigan University computer science student, and William Sverdlik, an EMU computer science professor, in April.

Under Sverdlik's guidance, Estep wrote a program that translates the electrical pulses coming off of the co-op's meters into a series of graphs — updated in real time — on the Ypsilanti Solar Project's Web site, www.SolarYpsi.org. Precise enough to show dips in power generation when clouds pass over the panels, the graphs provide a fresh snapshot every five minutes.

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