The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) proposes to continue its research partnership with the NREL in Golden, CO. The partnership resonates with the goals outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce (with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) signed in 2011. This CRADA will sustain the research partnership and provide an avenue and resources for ongoing collaborations, including the maintenance of NREL-furnished computer and storage equipment at CSU/CIRA. There is no formal exchange of funds in this CRADA; support above and beyond the in-kind items outlined in this document will come on a best-effort basis and/or in association with formal sponsored-research enabled collaborations. The research conducted under this CRADA continues to work toward enabling and improving short-term solar energy forecasting as developed under previous CIRA/CSU and NREL collaborations, with specific focus on point-based (e.g., solar farm) forecasting on the 1-3 hour timeframe. Under the best-effort actions during the CRADA period, technical maintenance of CIRA's existing satellite-based solar forecasting algorithm ("CIRACast"; Miller et al., 2017) was continued to maintain operability with evolving datasets. These efforts benefit the public by maintaining national capability for point solar forecasting using geostationary observation platforms, and laying the groundwork for future technical improvements as opportunities arise.

Under this Agreement, NREL will work with Participant to improve the instrumentation and measurement systems available for measuring and monitoring solar radiation elements needed by the electric utilities and solar power system integrators to adequately characterize the spatial and temporal variations of the renewable energy resources. This work includes, but is not limited to, research and development for making cost effective radiometers, solar trackers, and related instrumentation for solar resource measurements and forecasting. Cooperative R&D is proposed in three areas: Improved radiometric systems for cost effective irradiance measurements (direct normal, global, diffuse and plane-of-array); evaluation of innovative disruptive technology approaches for deriving the constituent solar energy components utilizing new fast-response thermopile measurement technologies, coupled with innovative shading geometry and tracker motion control; and low-cost solutions for sky imaging needed for resource forecasting. This work will be conducted at NREL and Participant facilities.