Smart Table 

Smart Table is an outdoor solar powered charge station, that monitors environmental parameters and then compares them to the power production of the photovoltaic system. A personally designed and built picnic table will lay the platform for this project whose goal is to involve the community and promote sustainable energy. The environmental parameters being monitored are solar cell temperature, ambient temperature, light intensity, and barometric pressure. This stored data can be of use to environmental studies for analysis, management, and for preparing solutions to environmental issues the global community currently faces. The optimal environment for solar panel power production is on a cool clear day with high light intensity. This project will demonstrate how other non-optimal environments affect the power production of a solar powered off-grid system. While this system is being placed on a charge station table at Sonoma State University, future productions of this system can be tailored to fit other renewable energy technologies in varying environments. The power from the solar panel is going to be a charge station for anyone at Sonoma State University to use for charging their mobile devices. Portable devices such as cell phones, tablets, and laptops are limited by the charge of the batteries and often times need to be recharged. The charge station is designed in such a way that the solar panel also provides rotatable shade similar to a normal shade cover provided by an ordinary picnic table. Smart Table serves as a picnic table, a charge station, a power production monitoring system and a weather station for environmental studies. It is user friendly, educational and promotes renewable energy.