The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday installed a park bench near the Connecticut Science Center that uses wind and solar power to monitor air quality.
Developed by EPA scientists, the “village green station” has solar panels and a small wind turbine mounted on it that power an air-monitoring system within the structure.
The system measures ozone and fine-particle pollution minute by minute, as well as weather conditions, which provide more insight into shifting trends in air quality.
EPA makes the data available to the public online, so residents, students and citizen scientists can study it.
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It’s the seventh such bench EPA has installed across the country and the first in New England.
