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Virginia's burgeoning solar energy industry has been helped along by a $6 million grant from the state's Department of Environmental Quality, the Virginian-Pilot reports.
The money is going to researchers at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center, who are using the grant to study runoff from solar panels on 1,000 acres of land.
During a storm, rain falls to the ground and infiltrates vegetation below, which raises the question of whether the panels should be considered impervious, such as a parking lot, or pervious, such as a grass field.
The DEQ's initial assessment concluded that the panels should be considered 100% impervious and recommended best management practices accordingly to prevent water pollution.
The researchers are using a geographic information system to create a visual map of the 1,000-acre site and plot where to install each monitoring system.
Using an automatic sampler, the team then collects runoff samples throughout a storm.
Team members also developed a software program that enables them to control the monitoring system remotely using mobile devices.
Once samples are collected, they are brought back to the lab and tested for sediment.
The concentration of sediment in that receptacle is essentially an average across the entire storm, offering a more accurate representation than a concentrated measurement from one part
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Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
A Social Business Strategy
MBA and Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server, Symon Garfield, writes, “Social business has no value without purpose. If you know what you are trying to do (strategy) then that will give you the means to measure success (business case or value proposition), and that in turn will help you assess investments in social against other priorities. The starting point is strategy.”