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Dr. Kenneth (Kary) Ritter is the director of the Cleco Alternative Energy Center (CAEC) and has a Masters’ of Science in Solar Energy Engineering from Högskolan Dalarna in Borlänge, Sweden. He has been the senior research scientist for the University owned concentrating solar power (CSP) plant since 2016 and has conducted numerous studies to optimize the plant operations and maintenance. He directed the development of the Mechanical Engineering Virtual Reality (MECH-VR) Lab that has developed over 10 virtual training applications. His research interests include solar power(CSP and PV), solar thermal, and virtual reality training.

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2003 
Louisiana State University

M.S. Solar Energy Engineering, 2011
Högskolan Dalarna University

Ph.D., Systems Engineering, 2016
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Dr. Ritter's research interests are in:

• Solar power(CSP and PV)
• Solar thermal
• Virtual reality training

• Ritter, K. A., III; McBride, Albert; Chambers, Terrence. (2021). "Soiling Comparison of Mirror Film and Glass Concentrating Solar Power Reflectors in Southwest Louisiana" Sustainability 13, no. 10: 5727. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105727 
• Ritter, K.A., Chambers, T.L. (2021). “Three-dimensional modeled environments versus 360 degree panoramas for mobile virtual reality training.” Virtual Reality (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-021-00502-9 
• K. A. Ritter III, Heather Stone, Terrence L. Chambers, 2019, “Empowering Through Knowledge: Exploring Place-based Environmental Education in Louisiana Classrooms Through Virtual Reality,” Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 1, March 2019. Available at: http://asee-coed.org/index.php/coed/article/view/RitterIII_Empowering/pdf_31
• Brambles, O., Ritter, K., Johnson, L. McBride, T., Snyder, S., Stettenheim, J., Chambers, T., Raush, J., “Field Testing of Manufacturable Advanced Low-Cost Receiver for Parabolic Trough Solar Power,” 2019 IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech), April, 2019, ��˾��������, LA. DOI: 10.1109/GreenTech.2019.8767118. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8767118
• Ritter III, K., Borst, C., Chambers, T., (2018), “Virtual Solar Energy Center Case Studies,” Computers in Education Journal, 9(4).
• Ritter III, K. A., Prilliman, M. J., Chambers, T. L., & Raush, J. R. (2018). “Maintenance of a Small-Scale Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Power Plant in Louisiana.” International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy, 6(6), 104–111. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20170606.12
• K Ritter, T Chambers, M Prillman, J Raush. (2017). “Measurement and Assessment of Parabolic Trough Mirror Soiling in an Operational CSP Plant in Southeastern United States,” Proceedings of the ASES National Solar Conference 2017. doi:10.18086/solar.2017.02.01
• Raush, J., Ritter, K., Prilliman, M., Hebert, M., Pan, Z., Chambers, T. (2018) “Numerical Model and Performance Validation of a Small-Scale Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Plant in Louisiana,” Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 6, pp. 112-140. https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JPEE_2018092915530288.pdf.