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Black Bear Solar Institute

Black Bear Solar Institute is a unique non-profit charitable organization, founded in the Great Smoky Mountains area of Tennessee to establish, construct, and operate facilities for long-term performance and reliability testing of solar energy equipment, its use, installation methods, and practices, throughout their decades of useful life expectancy.

Fully instrumented tests and demonstrations are performed to evaluate real-world vs. theoretical performance, and identify factors that can improve performance, safety and longevity of the installations. Testing is performed in integrated systems that apply to commercial, residential and agricultural scenarios. All test results are freely available to the general public through this website.

Revenue generated through sales of solar module sponsorships and solar electricity will be used to fund projects which benefit our environment and its wild and domestic inhabitants.