Performance assessment of a solar-powered air quality and weather station placed on a school rooftop in Hong Kong

Abstract

Initial evaluation of a rooftop installation of a VG station in Hong Kong has revealed that the system has overall maintained adequate operation throughout a five-month period of time, almost entirely unattended, operating solely by solar power, with data recorded via wireless transmission to a local base station. The station exceeded data quality objectives in terms of completeness, but had more downtime than observed at a more northern location in the United States, which is attributed to some shading on the solar panels due to surrounding tall buildings. The preliminary ozone and PM2.5 data set from the VG station correlated well with nearby reference monitors operated at the HKEPD Eastern station. Further data collection in the winter and spring of 2016 will continue to test the long-term performance of the station.