Page 148 - Applied Photovoltaics

Chapter

8

SPECIFIC PURPOSE

PHOTOVOLTAIC

APPLICATIONS

8.1 INTRODUCTION
Photovoltaic systems are very versatile; they can be smaller than a coin or larger than
a football field, they can power anything from a watch to an entire town and the only
fuel source required is light (Sandia National Laboratories, 1991). These factors,
combined with their simplicity of operation, have made them especially attractive as
power supplies for a range of independent specific-purpose applications. The most
common of these are discussed in this chapter. In Australia at the end of 2003, there
was 13.59 MW p of cumulative installed PV capacity for off-grid non-domestic use,
26.06 MW p for off-grid domestic use, 4.63 MW p for grid-connected distributed
supply and 1.35 MW p for centralised grid-connected supply (Watt, 2004). This does
not include the many small-scale applications, such as garden lights, watches or
calculators, which are commonly used around the country.

8.2 SPACE
When first developed, photovoltaic cells were suitable only for space applications,
owing to their high cost. Solar cells continue to be used to power spacecraft, satellites
and remotely-controlled vehicles on Mars. As can be expected, because of the
importance of high reliability, space applications require extremely high quality
control and standards of production (Hardingham, 2001). Efficiency of the solar cells
is also of importance because of the weight and area limitations on spacecraft.