Jan Kleissl

Associate director, Center for Energy Research

Solar Resource Assessment & Forecasting Laboratory

Jan Kleissl is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering. He received a Ph.D. in 2004 from Johns Hopkins University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan Technological University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at New Mexico Tech until he joined UC San Diego in November 2006..

Kleissl is an expert on solar resource assessment and forecasting and vice-chair of the American Solar Energy Society resource applications division. Using high frequency solar irradiance measurements and whole sky imagery, Kleissl's research group has developed cloud tracking and intra-hour solar forecasting models. These models are expected to be critical to facilitate economical integration of large amounts of solar power into the electric grid.

Kleissl also researches the interaction of weather with engineering systems, in particular buildings and their energy use, solar power systems and irrigated lands. He developed the first building energy use model that is coupled with weather processes in the urban canyon and urban fluid mechanics through large eddy simulation. This model can be used to study the impact of urban surfaces on human comfort and energy use.