Jan Kleissl
Professor, Renewable Energy and Environmental Flows
Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Director, UCSD Center for Energy Research
co-Director, Study Abroad
9500 Gilman Drive, EBUII - 580
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA, 92093-0411
Directions

(c) (619) 376-3971 | (o) (858) 534-8087
email: jkleissl at ucsd.edu

PhD., Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2004
M.Sc. Water Resources Engineering and Management, University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2001
B.S., Environmental Engineering ("Umweltschutztechnik"), University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2000

News

Kleissl's students critical in bringing $154 Million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds to San Diego to build 20 MW of solar PV projects.
Reduction in roof heat flux through solar panels
UC San Diego Microgrid
Effects of reflective pavements on building energy use
Electric Vehicle smart charging.

Hiring: Postdoctoral Fellows, PhD students

Teaching
MAE126A Winter quarters: Laboratory Experiment Course for Environmental Engineers
MAE255 Spring quarters, every 2 years: Boundary Layer and Renewable Energy Meteorology
MAE125 Winter quarters, every 2 years: Building Energy Efficiency

Outreach / Events
K12 Environmental Education with Solar Energy lesson plans through the UCSD Global Teams in Engineering Service (TIES) program

Research
My research group works in solar radiation in the atmosphere and solar power integration into the electric grid through field experimental (sky cameras, sensor networks) and computational techniques (optimization, quasi-steady state power flow). The research is unique in that it spans the spectrum of fundamental work to applications with the goal of increasing environmental sustainability. Sample applications are solar power resource forecasting, variability modeling, voltage control on electric distribution feeders under high solar PV penetration, smart charging of electric vehicles, and microgrid planning. Student mentoring is my priority: My students present regularly at national and international conferences, have received fellowships from NASA and NSF, and collaborate with NREL, Sandia, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab on research projects.

Book:

Kleissl Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting Lab

Solar resource assessment (How much solar radiation can be typically expected?) and forecasting (How much solar radiation can be expected in the next hour or next day?) are critical to expanding the penetration of solar power on the electric grid. Kleissl was selected by the California Energy Commission and California Solar Initiative to conduct solar resource assessment and forecasting for the state of California.
The map on the right shows a screenshot of our Google Earth Map global horizontal incident solar irradiance for the state of California.

© Google Earth, 2010

Satellite remote sensing models (top left), numerical weather prediction (bottom), and ground sensors (top right) are used to provide solar forecasts for time horizons from 10 minutes to 72 hours. The map on the top left shows GOES satellite GHI [W m-2] for the San Diego area at 1 km resolution. Clouds (east half) cause a substantial reduction in GHI. The coast is visible due to satellite navigation errors. Cloud motion vectors are applied to forecast the movement of the clouds. North American Model (NAM) output from the National Weather Service is shown on the bottom left for a storm system moving through California.
Images of the La Jolla skies produce solar output forecasts for 1 MW of dispersed solar PV that will be utilized by a microgrid scheduler/optimizer to enable supply, storage and load adjustments based on dynamic market price signals (lower right).