Designing panda solar power plants with Energy3D

Fig. 1: Panda power in Energy3D

Fig. 2: Panda power in Energy3D

A Panda-shaped photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in Datong, China recently came online and quickly went viral in the news. While solar power plants in cute shapes are not a new thing (I blogged about the Mickey Mouse-shaped solar farm in Orlando, FL about six weeks ago), this one drew a lot of attentions because the company that built it, Panda Green Energy Group, is reportedly planning to build 100 more such plants around the world to advertise for renewable energy. According to the company's website, the idea of building Panda-shaped solar power plants originated from Ada Li, a student from Oregon Episcopal School. Li proposed her idea at the COP21 Conference in Paris.

The construction of the 100 MW Datong Panda Solar Power Plant began on November 20, 2016. It is expected to generate 3.2 billion KWh in a life span of 25 years. The plant consists of two types of solar panels of different colors: black monocrystalline solar panels and white thin-film solar panels. The two types form the characteristic shape and pattern of a giant panda, the national treasure of China and the logo of the World Wildlife Fund. Considering the number of people who complain about solar power plants being eyesores in their neighborhoods, these attempts by the Panda and Micky Mouse solar farms and their future cousins may provide examples to mitigate these negative perceptions.

Fig. 3: A close-up view of Panda power.

Fig. 4: A close-up view of Panda power.

One of our summer interns, Maya Haigis, who is a student from the University of Rochester, spent a couple of hours to create an Energy3D model of the Datong Panda Solar Power Plant after I shared the news with her today. The power plant is so new that Google Maps currently show only a picture of it under construction. So Maya went ahead to draw the power plant based on an artist's imagination taken from the news. Her design ended up using about 34,000 solar panels. To make it look like a real giant panda with its trademark black and white fur, I had to quickly add a light gray color option for solar panels in Energy3D. Maya's work came out to be amazingly realistic (Figures 1 and 2). This is even more remarkable considering that Maya had no prior experience with Energy3D.

Panda Green Energy said in the press release that they designed the power plant also for the purpose of engaging youth to join the renewable energy revolution. They are planning to reach out to schools for student site visits. There is also a plan to make the power plant a tourist attraction. I am not sure people would pay to go there to see it. But with Energy3D, we can imagine the experience by taking a virtual tour with the 3D model (Figures 3 and 4). The engineers among us can run Energy3D simulations to analyze its performance and investigate whether such an effort makes scientific sense.

So what about inviting children all over the world to "paint" the brownfields that have scarred our planet with this kind of good-looking solar power plants using Energy3D as a "solar brush?" Welcome to our Solarize Your World Initiative!