Glint, Glimmer, Glow

Solar Panel

A partnership between Kathryn Moore (a local artist with a focus on integrating renewable practices with art), The Arts Center Corvallis, Mechanical Engineering students and ourselves, Electrical and Computer Engineering students, purposed with creating an art installation powered by renewable energy. The intent was to excite ideas about the interplay between sustainable energy and art. It is contextualized by a trend in major art institutions such as Louvre setting ambitious energy consumption and energy portfolio goals. Key technologies of the system include solar panels to guarantee clean renewable power, a solar charge controller to stabilize the solar energy to a more usable form, a LiFePO4 battery to store the energy, an inverter system to convert the DC power of the battery to AC power, and a GUI to monitor the entire solar system. The main challenge of implementing this system was a lack of prior experience. This was the first time we installed a full solar system, and the design and installation ended up being more complicated than originally thought. We also had some issues with needing to collaborate with ME students in order to construct a scaffolding system for the solar panels. In spite of these difficulties, the system was successfully installed at the Art Center and the exhibit was opened to the public on May 16, 2024.

1 Lifts 

Artifacts

Name Description
Video Presentation of Project Enjoy this short informational video :)   Link
Project Poster A poster of our project. Identical to the image seen above.   Download
Executive Summary A separate PDF of our executive summary that also includes a timeline graphic.   Download
Project Document A collection of all of our documentation related to the project, including technical information and system/block verification.   Download
Feedback